Beijing National Aquatics Center
From Archiplanet
 | Beijing National Aquatics Center |
| Designer | PTW Architects, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia |
| Location | Beijing, China |
| Date | 2003 to late 2007 |
| Building Type | Stadium |
| Construction System | steel, structural glass |
| Climate | Warm Temperate |
| Context | Urban, Park |
| Architectural Style | High Tech Modern |
| Builder | China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Beijing, China |
| Street Address | |
| Notes | Also known as The Water Cube. Designed with Arup and the China State Construction Engineering Corporation, Beijing, China (CSCEC); Part of the Beijing Olympic Green, site of the 2008 Olympic Games. |
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| Building Details | |
| Client | Beijing State Asset Management, Chinese Olympic Committee, 2008 Summer Olympics |
| Area | 90,000 square meters (968,800 square feet) |
| Length | 177 meters (581 feet) |
| Width | 30 meters (98 feet) |
| Program | five pools, restaurant, seating for 17,000 (6,000 permanent, 11,000 temporary). |
The Beijing National Aquatics Center is the main venue for aquatic competitions during the 2008 Summer Olympics, to be held in Beijing, China. Together with the Beijing National Stadium, the aquatics center (known as the Water Cube) stands at the center of the Olympic park in Beijing.
The building's unique exterior envelope was designed to recall bubbles in water.
A key element of the building's sustainability is its "reuse and recycling of 80% of water harvested from the roof catchment areas, pool backwash systems and overland flows".
Related Content from Wikipedia
Beijing National Aquatics Centre
The Beijing National Aquatics Centre (), also known as the Water Cube (水立方) or abbreviated [H2O]3
, is an aquatics centre that was built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the 2008 Summer Olympics. Ground was broken on December 24, 2003.
Architecture
The Water Cube was initially designed by PTW Architects PTW, CSCEC International Design and Arup with structural Engineers Arup conceiving the structure. The structure was built by CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation). 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 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 outer wall is based on the Weaire-Phelan structure, a foam (structure formed by soap bubbles).Beijing venues - National Aquatics Centre, on BBC Sports. The pattern is formed by taking a slice through the foam, and it was chosen in preference to the Kelvin foam because the more complex Weaire-Phelan structure results in more irregular, organic patterns than slices through the regular Kelvin foam.Welcome to WaterCube, the experiment that thinks it's a swimming pool by Peter Rogers in The Guardian, May 6 2004
The structure will have a capacity of 17,000during the games that will be reduced to 6,000 afterwards. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square metres and will cover a total of 7.8 acres.
Olympics
The Aquatics Centre will host the Swimming, Diving and Synchronized Swimming events during the Olympics. The Water Polo was originally planned to be hosted in the venue but has been moved to the Ying Tung Natatorium.
Awards
- 2004 - Venice Biennale - Award for most accomplished work Atmosphere section
- 2006 - Popular Science Best of what's new 2006 in engineering
References
See also
External links
- ptw architects
- Arup
- 'The Water Cube', National Swimming Centre, Beijing, China
- chris bosse
- cscec
- iconography
- Vector Foiltec homepage
- Beijing 2008 @ OOne
- News and Project Information on the Watercube, Beijing
- Conceptualising, planning and engineering the Water Cube
- Google Map of Aquatic Center
bg:Национален център по водни спортове на Пекин de:Nationales Schwimmzentrum in Peking fr:Centre national de natation de Pékin ko:베이징 국가수영장 hu:Pekingi Nemzeti Vízi Központ ms:Pusat Akuatik Nasional Beijing no:Beijing National Aquatics Centre sr:Национални центар за водене спортове у Пекингу zh:北京國家游泳中心
Maps
References
- 'The Water Cube', National Aquatics Centre, Beijing. Arup.com.
- The Giant Greenhouse. Arup.com.
- The Structure. Arup.com.
- The Technology. Arup.com.
- Protecting 'The Water Cube'. Arup.com.
- Managing the Project. Arup.com.
- The Water Cube: a sustainable venue. Arup.com.
External Links
- News coverage at YouTube.com
- Beijing National Aquatics Center photo set at Flickr
- Aquatics Center official web page
