Beijing National Aquatics Center
Called The National Aquatics Center, also known as the Water Cube (Eng. Water Cube, abbreviated [ H2O ] 3), was the competition venue for the competitions in swimming, arts and diving, and synchronized swimming at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in the Chinese capital Beijing.
Architecture and design
In July 2003, the architecture firm PTW and Arup won the competition to build the olympic - national swimming center, they put through against 18 other participants through. The two Australian companies designed the competition venue here together with Chinese partners. Arup and PTW worked previously at the watersports center in the Olympic Summer Games 2000 in Sydney.
2009 The Water Cube received the IOC / IAKS Gold Award is the only international architecture prize for facilities already in operation sports and leisure facilities ( new construction, expansion or modernization ).
The framework of the Aquatics Centre is based on a lightweight construction. A series of irregular honeycomb form an extremely light and several meters thick dimensional framework, whose unusual geometric design is inspired by the structure of soap scum and technically based on the Weaire -Phelan structure. The individual cells of the outer skin and the roof were about 3,500 film elements from light blue ETFE film, comparable to the Allianz Arena in Munich, equipped, can be projected on the video. In addition to the medial end, the plastic shell case also serves as the passive use of solar radiation on the building. Ninety percent of the incident solar energy can be used to heat the water basin and the interiors.
Location
The Olympic swimming pool occupies the western part of the Olympic Green, 150 m west of Beijing National Stadium ( Olympic Stadium "Bird's Nest " ), with an area of about 70,800 m². The Olympic Green is located north of the center of Beijing and is surrounded by 760 hectares of forest neuangelegtem. All venues are located in the countryside, close to the Olympic Village.
Use
In addition to several swimming pools, a skating rink, a sports hall, a cinema and various clubs are housed on a total of 70,000 m² of floor space. Since the end of the Olympic Games the " Water Cube " as a leisure center ( " water park " ) is used during the competition pool is reserved for competitive sports. Despite high entry prices, the demand is higher than the maximum of daily visitors 2500 guests.
" Replicas "
The exterior of the Water Cube became so famous that they are " replicas " could not deny himself. The Casino Oceanus, located in Macao directly at the ferry terminal and designed by Paul Steelman, is almost a one-to -one copy of the Water Cube, in both the facade and in the cubic form. During the joint construction of the Melbourne Recital Centre and MTC Theatre in Melbourne, Australia ( design of ARM - Ashton Raggatt MacDougall ) was a part of the facade in a similar oblique honeycomb structure as the Water Cube designed. The fields, however, were filled with glass here.