China's Olympic stadium, the Birds Nest, has won the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) Lubetkin award for outstanding architecture for an overseas project.

The £217m stadium, designed by previous RIBA winners Herzog & de Meuron, played host to the Beijing Olympics in 2008 and beat off stiff competition from five other shortlisted buildings for the prize – including the Beijing National Swimming Centre nicknamed (The Cube), and the Museum Brandhorst in Munich, Germany.

The prize is dedicated to Berthold Lubetkin, the Georgian architect who established the Tecton Group in the 1930s.

RIBA president, Sunand Prasad said: "The National Stadium in Beijing will remain amongst the most memorable emblems of 2008."