Water Cube: The Beijing Olympics Nationa Swimming Centre, by PTW Architects

One of the obvious advantages of taking over the organizations of any major world event is architects competing to decorate the host city or nation with new buildings. Such is the case with Beijing of course, preparing for this year’s Olympic Games. The city has been turned into a giant open air museum of modern architecture, with architects from all over the world competing to make the most memorable and beautiful buildings there. One such building, maybe the most beautiful of them all, is the Water Cube, the National Swimming Centre.

PTW (Peddle, Thorpe & Walker), CCDI (China State Construction Design International) and Arup won the international design competition to design and build the aquatic centre for the Beijing Olympics. A lighted cube, with a steel frame and transparent synthetic "bubbles" as skin, is situated next to the Olympic Stadium of Beijing, in the Olympic Green. It was inaugurated and delivered for use on the morning of January 28,
2008.

It took over four years to construct: the project’s ETFE (ethylene-tetra-fluoro-ethylene) air cushion structures are the first of their kind to be
used in China and the largest and most complicated membrane system in any single
project in the world (The Water Cube uses more than 100,000 sq. m. of ETFE). Many scientific and technical
difficulties had to be overcome in order to make this amazing building. Among the achievements, nine important
self-dependent innovations resolved world-class difficult topics related to the
project’s steel structures, membrane structures and inner layout.

The NAC’s Games-time construction area is close to 80,000 square meters,
containing 17,000 standard seats, including 6,000 permanent seats and 11,000
temporary ones. During the 2008 Olympic Games, it will produce 42 gold medals in
swimming, diving and synchronized swimming. in addition to being a n aquatic competition venue, after the Olympics the centre will be converted into a multi-functional facility for
sports, culture and recreation, featuring a "water setting" for people of Beijing.

The concept combines the symbolism of the square in Chinese culture and the natural structure of soap bubbles translated into architectural form. The result is a landmark building that uses state of the art technology and materials, is visually striking, energy efficient and ecologically friendly.

The designers set up metal wires on
the collection system particularly to let birds rest and make sure they do
not step on the "bubbles."

The "Water Cube" was built in accordance with a water-saving design concept to be a
gigantic green architectural wonder. ETFE is much lighter than conventional
glazing structures with the same lighting effect. So the cost of its supporting
steel structure was reduced considerably.If made by a German company it would have cost 400-500 Euro per
square meter, but the same material manufactured through a joint venture was
only 2,000 Yuan per square meter. The conventional glass covering would have cost
about 500 to 600 Euro.

In addition, the "Water Cube" was designed with water-saving and
environmental protection efforts. According to statistics, the outer surface and
roof façade can "collect" 10,000 tons of rain water, 70,000 tons of clean water
and 60,000 tons of swimming pool water annually. And the venue can also save
140,000 tons of recycled water a year.
Other environmental design efforts covered an air-conditioning system,
surface water exploitation and ventilation system.

The design was not without an intriguing story until it was finalised, you can read more about it in this article.

Venue: National Aquatics Center

Location: Olympic Green

Total land surface: 79,532 sq m

Seats: 6,000 permanent and 11,000 temporary

Competitions: Swimming, Diving, Synchronized Swimming

Groundbreaking date: December 24, 2003

Completion date: January 28, 2008

Client: People’s Government of Beijing Municipality, Beijing SAM

Architects: PTW + CCDI + ARUP

PTW design team:
John Bilmon
Mark Butler
Chris Bosse

CSCEC+design team leaders:
Zhao Xiaojun
Wang Min
Shang Hong

ARUP:
Tristram Carfrae
Peter Macdonald
Kenneth Ma
Haico Schepers
Mark Arkinstall,
Steve Pennell
Stuart Bull