Beijing National Aquatics Center

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Beijing National Aquatics Center

Water Cube

The National Aquatics Center, with the Beijing National Stadium in the background

Building information Full name: City: Capacity: Built: Opened: Construction cost: Beijing National Aquatics Center Beijing, China 17,000 20042007 2008 yuan 940 million USD $ 140 million EUR 94 million Architect(s): PTW Architects, CSCEC, CCDI, andArup Pools
Name Main pool Length 50m Width 25m Depth 3m Lanes 10

The Beijing National Aquatics Center (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ), also officially known as the National Aquatics Center,[1] and colloquially known as the Water Cube (Chinese: ), is an aquatics center that was built alongsideBeijing National Stadium in

the Olympic Green for the swimming competitions of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Despite its nickname, the building is not an actual cube, but a cuboid (a rectangular box). 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] After the Olympics, the building underwent a 200 million Yuan revamp to turn half of its interior into a water park.[4] The building officially reopened on August 8, 2010.[5]
Contents
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1 Architecture 2 At the Olympics 3 Post-Olympics use 4 Awards 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Architecture[edit]
In July 2003, the Water Cube design was chosen from 10 proposals in an international architectural competition for the aquatic center project.[6]The Water Cube was specially designed and built by a consortium made up of PTW Architects (an Australian architecture firm),[7] Arupinternational engineering group, CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation), and CCDI (China Construction Design International) of Shanghai.[8] 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. Contextually the cube symbolises earth whilst the circle (represented by the stadium) represents heaven. Hence symbolically the water cube references Chinese symbolic architecture. Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness.[9] The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs.[9] The outer wall is based on the WeairePhelan structure, a structure devised from the natural pattern of bubbles in soap lather.[10] In the true Weaire-Phelan structure the edge of each cell is curved in order to maintain 109.5 degree angles at each vertex (satisfying Plateau's rules), but of course as a structural support system each beam was required to be straight so as to better resist axial compression. The complex WeairePhelan 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.[8] Using the

WeairePhelan geometry, the Water Cube's exterior cladding is made of 4,000 ETFE bubbles, some as large as 9.14 metres (30.0 ft) across, with seven different sizes for the roof and 15 for the walls.[11] The structure had a capacity of 17,000[9] during the games that is being reduced to 7,000. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square meters and will cover a total of 32,000 square metres (7.9 acres). [9] Although called the Water Cube, the aquatic center is really a rectangular box (cuboid) 178 metres (584 ft) square and 31 metres (102 ft) high.[11] The building's popularity has spawned many copycat structures throughout China.[12] Fox example, there is one-to-one copy of the facade near the ferry terminal in Macau the Casino Oceanus by Paul Steelman.[13]

Water Cube The National Aquatics Center in Chaoyang

The National Aquatics Center at night

Inside the Water Cube on August 14, 2008

The Beijing National Aquatics Center while under construction

At the Olympics[edit]
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 believed the Water Cube to be the fastest Olympic pool[14] in the world. It is 1.314 meters deeper than most Olympic pools. The London 2012 Aquatics Centre is the same depth, which leads many to believe the London pool is as fast if not faster than the Beijing pool. 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.[citation needed] The Aquatics Center saw 25 world records broken in the Beijing Olympics,[3] however, all the records broken were accomplished by athletes using the super-slick swimwear which have become banned at the beginning of the 2010 season by the International Swimming Federation (FINA).[15]

Post-Olympics use[edit]

Video: The Beijing National Aquatics Center reopened on July 28, 2010.

After the Olympics, the Water Cube was opened to the public on select days of the week beginning in June 2009, and was also used as the site for a production of Swan Lake amongst other shows. On October 19, 2009, the Water Cube was closed to the public to begin a massive renovation of a portion of the complex into a water park.[16] The building reopened on August 8, 2010, marking the two-year anniversary of the beginning of the 2008 Summer Olympics. The redesigned facility contains numerous water rides and slides, a wave pool, and spa areas. The renovations were performed in order to bring renewed interest to the Olympic Green area as part of the games' legacy.[5]

Awards[edit]

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 Quote from the Jury report of the Official Awards 9th International Architecture Exhibition METAMORPH, Venice Biennale

2004: Venice Biennale Award for most accomplished work Atmosphere section[17] 2006: Popular Science Best of what's new 2006 in engineering[9] 2008: NSW 'Project of the Year' award from the Australian Institute of Project Management [18] 2009: 40th annual MacRobert Award, the UK's biggest prize for engineering innovation 2010: International Association for Bridge and Structural Engineering 2010 Outstanding Structure Award

See also[edit]
Beijing portal Architecture portal

Frei Otto Chris Bosse Rob Leslie-Carter Swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympics

References[edit]
1. 2. Jump up^ Official Olympics Site National Aquatics Center Jump up^ National Aquatics Center Delivered for Use, Beijing 2008 Olympics Official Web Site, January 1, 2008, 3. ^ Jump up to:
a b

Scott M. Reid (August 18, 2008). "25 world records broken at Beijing's Water

Cube". Orange County Register and MSNBC. 4. 5. Jump up^ "Cube becomes Park for Olympic Revival". ^ Jump up to:
a b

Farrar, Lara. "Beijing's Water Cube now has slides, rides, a wave pool and spa".

CNNGO. Archived from the original on August 19, 2010. Retrieved August 15, 2010. 6. Jump up^ Arup East Asia. "The Water Cube, National Aquatics Centre, Beijing". Retrieved August 17, 2008. 7. 8. Jump up^ PTW Architects ^ Jump up to:
a b

Welcome to WaterCube, the experiment that thinks it's a swimming pool by Peter

Rogers in The Guardian, May 6, 2004

9.

^ Jump up to:

a b c d e

arup.com (2006). "Best of What's New 2006 Engineering". Popular

Science 269 (6): 8485 10. Jump up^ Beijing venues National Aquatics Center, on BBC Sports. 11. ^ Jump up to:
a b

Pearson, Clifford (July 2008). "Projects: National Swimming Center". Architectural

Record (McGraw Hill) 196 (7). Archived from the original on August 13, 2008. Retrieved August 16, 2008. 12. Jump up^ Barbara Demick. "Beijing's Water Cube Still Drawing Crowds". Los Angeles Times. Aug. 13, 2009. 13. Jump up^ Casino Oceanus The Unofficial Casino Oceanus Website from www.oceanus.asia 14. Jump up^ China's Olympic Swimming Pool: Redefining Fast 15. Jump up^ http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/25/sports/25swim.html?_r=0 16. Jump up^ http://www.ebeijing.gov.cn/BeijingInformation/BeijingNewsUpdate/t1089220.htm 17. Jump up^ "PTW Projects:Watercube-National Swimming Centre". Retrieved December 6, 2006.(page in Flash presentation) 18. Jump up^ http://www.arup.com/australasia/newsitem.cfm?pageid=11834

External links[edit]
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Beijing National Aquatics Centre.

Water Cube at Beijing.cn Beijing2008.cn profile Official website Beijing Water Cube video National Geographic Channel Arup in Beijing PTW Architects Arup chris bosse laboratory for visionary architecture National Aquatics Center (Water Cube) Science News article describing the design of the building and the mathematics behind it cscec iconography Vector Foiltec homepage Beijing 2008 @ OOne

News and Project Information on the Watercube, Beijing Conceptualising, planning and engineering the Water Cube Gallery, architecture images Consulting services performed by RWDI