Venue: National Aquatics Center
Location: Olympic Green
Total land surface: 65,000-80,000 sq m
Seats: 6,000 permanent and 11,000 temporary
Competitions: Swimming, Diving, Synchronized Swimming
Groundbreaking date: Dec. 24, 2003
The Beijing National Aquatics Centre, also known as the Water Cube (or abbreviated [H2O]3 [1]), is an aquatics centre that is currently being built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Ground was broken on December 24, 2003.
The Water Cube was initially designed by PTW Architects from Sydney, Australia and CSCEC International Design and Arup with structural Engineers Arup conceiving the structure. The structure was built by CSCEC (China State Construction Enginering Corporation). Comprised of a steel spaceframe, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m2 of ETFE pillows that are only eight one-thousandths of an inch in total thickness, The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs
The Water Cube employs water as a structural and thematical "leitmotiv" with the square, the primal shape of the house in Chinese tradition and mythology. The structure of the watercube is based on a unique, lightweight construction, developed by Arup and CSCEC with PTW, and derived from the the structure of water in the state of aggregation of FOAM as deduced by Weaire and Phelan of Trinity College, Dublin. Behind the apparently random appearance hides a strict geometry found in natural systems such as crystals, cells and molecular structures. By applying novel materials and technology, the transparency and randomness is transposed into the inner and outer skins of ETFE cushions. Unlike traditional stadium structures with gigantic columns, beams, cables and backspans, to which a facade system is applied, in the watercube design the architectural space, structure and facade are one and the same element. Conceptually the square box and the interior spaces are carved out of an undefined cluster of foam bubbles, symbolizing a condition of nature that is transformed into a condition of culture. The appearance of the aquatic centre is a "cube of water molecules" |
