The Beijing National Aquatics Center
(), also known as the National Aquatics Center
(??????), [1] better known as the Water Cube
(???), or the "Ice Cube" is an aquatics center that was built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the swimming competitions of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Despite its nickname, the building is a cuboid (rectangular box), not a cube.
Ground was broken on December 24, 2003, and the Center was completed and handed over for use on January 28, 2008. [2]
Swimmers at the Water Cube broke 25 world records during the 2008 Olympics. [3]
|
NATIONAL AQUATICS CENTER TICKETS
|
Architecture
In July 2003, the Water Cube design was chosen from 10 proposals in an international
architectural competition for the aquatic center project.
[4]
The Water Cube was designed and built by a
consortium made up of
PTW Architects (an
Australian
architecture firm)
[5],
Arup international
engineering group, CSCEC (
China State Construction Engineering Corporation), and CCDI (
China Construction Design International) of
Shanghai.
[6] The Water Cube's design was initiated by a team effort: the Chinese partners felt a square was more symbolic to Chinese culture and its relationship to the
Bird's Nest stadium, while the Sydney based partners came up with the idea of covering the 'cube' with bubbles, symbolising water. The watercube has set a new standard in environmental sports design, not only in China but throughout the world.
Comprising a steel
space frame, it is the largest
ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness
[7]. The ETFE
cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs
.
The outer wall is based on the
Weaire-Phelan structure, a structure devised from the natural formation of
bubbles in
soap foam.
[8] The complex Weaire-Phelan pattern was developed by slicing through bubbles in soap foam, resulting in more irregular, organic patterns than foam bubble structures proposed earlier by the scientist
Kelvin.
Using the Weaire-Phelan
geometry, the Water Cube's exterior cladding is made of 4,000 ETFE bubbles, some as large as 9.14 meters (30 feet) across, with seven different sizes for the roof and 15 for the walls.
[9]
The structure will had a capacity of 17,000
during the games that will be reduced to 6,000 afterwards. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square meters and will cover a total of
. Although called the Water Cube, the aquatic center is really a
rectangular box (cuboid)- 178 meters (584 feet) square and 31 meters (102 feet) high.
Olympics
The Aquatics Center hosted the
Swimming,
Diving and
Synchronized Swimming events during the Olympics.
Water Polo was originally planned to be hosted in the venue but was moved to the
Ying Tung Natatorium.
Many people believe Water Cube to be the fastest
Olympic pool [10] in the world. It is 1 meter deeper than most Olympic pools. Up to a certain limit, beyond which swimmers will lose their sense of vision, deeper pools allow the waves to dissipate down to the bottom, leading to less water disturbance to the swimmers. The pool also has perforated gutters on both sides to absorb the waves.
With the popularity of the newly introduced faster
Speedo LZR Racer swim suit, the Aquatics Center saw
25 world records broken in the
Beijing Olympics.
Awards
| “
| The special award for the most accomplished work in the section Atmosphere is awarded to the Australian architecture firm PTW Architects, CSCEC + Design and Arup for the project National Swimming Centre, Beijing Olympic Green, China. The project demonstrates in a stunning way, how the deliberate morphing of molecular science, architecture and phenomenology can create an airy and misty atmosphere for a personal experience of water leisure
| ”
|
- 2004 - Venice Biennale - Award for most accomplished work Atmosphere section [11]
- 2006 - Popular Science
Best of what's new 2006 in engineering
- 2008 - NSW 'Project of the Year' award from the Australian Institute of Project Management
Notes
- Official Olympics Site, National Aquatics Center
-
National Aquatics Center Delivered for Use, Beijing 2008 Olympics Official Web Site, 2008-01-28
- 25 world records broken at Beijing's Water Cube
- The Water Cube, National Aquatics Centre, Beijing
- PTW Architects
- Welcome to WaterCube, the experiment that thinks it's a swimming pool by Peter Rogers in The Guardian, May 6 2004
- {{Harvard reference |Last=arup.com | Title=Best of What's New 2006 - Engineering | Journal=Popular Science | Volume=269 | Issue=6 | Year=2006 | url=http://www.popsci.com/popsci/flat/bown/2006/product_41.html | Page=84-85}}
- Beijing venues - National Aquatics Center, on BBC Sports.
- Projects: National Swimming Center
- China's Olympic Swimming Pool: Redefining Fast
- PTW Projects:Watercube-National Swimming Centre
See also
- Frei Otto
- Chris Bosse
- Rob Leslie-Carter
- Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics