Winner ... the construction site of the National Stadium in Beijing, China. Photograph: Adam Pretty/Getty
Seldom has there been so much criticism of a sporting facility that has yet to be built. I am, of course, talking about HOK's 2012 Olympic Stadium in London. Will Alsop argued that we need and deserve an iconic building. Other commentators noticed it didn't have a roof, and Stephen Bayley raised the tantalising possibility that it might become known as "the lavatory bowl". I think we'd all become quite attached to the original design by Foreign Office Architects.
It does seem a particularly Labour thing to do - take a good design, chuck it, invite a faceless American corporation to do another, then say the price has gone up. Was it always thus? Well, possibly. Do other countries do this? Not as much. Fortunately Zaha's still on the cards.
Herzog and De Meuron's "Bird Nest" design for the Chinese games is the obvious comparison. It's bold, original, stunning, and possibly a metaphor for the bureaucracy that commissioned it. It seems like a fitting centrepiece for the games, but the "Water Cube" next door is almost as stunning.
So, here are my top five sporting venues:
1. Frei Otto's 1972 Munich Olympics stadium Terrible games, amazing venue, and Otto practically invented a new school of architecture overnight. Tent-like structures quickly became a trope in sports architecture.
2. Future Systems' Media Centre at Lords' I mean - wow! You take a historic club, renowned for the conservatism of its members, and you build a spaceship in the middle. It could all have gone horribly wrong, but didn't. Sometimes you need to take risks to produce great architecture - someone should have mentioned this to Lord Coe.
3. Stade de France As anyone who's ever watched a French rugby team knows, this stadium lends itself to an atmosphere comparable to that of Venus (it's dense, and possibly a little poisonous). But the stadium has been highly praised for its flexibility (it can be used to host athletics as well), if not for the pop stars who frequent it. Celine Dion broke records here - perhaps literally.
4. Millennium Stadium in Cardiff Proving that the British can occasionally do big construction projects, the stadium is a corker. It's something of a shame that Wembley is not still under construction.
5. Estádio do Dragão Home of FC Porto. Designed by Manuel Salgado, the stadium not only looks stunning, but works well.
Why no Wembley on my list? Nothing wrong with the credentials of the architects (Fosters), but is it really as spectacular as all that? So - what else should our Olympic lords be looking to for inspiration?
