Beijing National Aquatics Center (Water Cube)
Tags : stadiums
The Beijing National Aquatics Center also officially known as the National Aquatics Center and colloquially known as the Water 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. Enclosed within the blue bubble walls are the pools for the Olympic swimming and diving competitions, along with seating and facilities for 17,000 spectators. After the Olympics, the building underwent a 200 million Yuan revamp to turn half of its interior into a water park. The US $100 million dollar project sits next to the glowing ‘Bird’s Nest’ of Herzog & de Meurons’ spectacular main stadium, the two opposing shapes sitting together in yin yang harmony. In July 2003, the consortium of Arup, architecture firm PTW, the CSCEC (China State Construction and Engineering Corporation) and the CSCEC Shenzhen Design Institute (CSCEC+DESIGN) won the international design competition for the National Aquatics Centre. The structure was inspired by cells and soap bubbles and is clad in ETFE foil cushions. It is based on a common natural pattern, the most effective sub-division of three-dimensional space – the fundamental arrangement of organic cells and the natural formation of soap bubbles. The Water Cube is essentially a structure made from an organic network of steel tubular members and clad with translucent ETFE pillows.There are 4,000 bubbles making up the Water Cube, with some as large as 7.5m wide. The roof comprises seven bubbles and the walls 16 bubbles, which are repeated throughout. At night, 44,000 Cree XLamp LEDs illuminate the bubble designs from inside the structure’s translucent walls, allowing the entire building to glow with extraordinary colour-changing LED light.
Movie Scenes shot at this place
| Movie | Scene Title |
|---|---|
| Karate Kid, The | Dre-Meiying date - II |
