Water Cube, ChillyCraps Style
Bloggers Olympics 2008 January 14th, 2008
Bloggers Olympics 2008 is a corner where bloggers around the world share their thoughts on the Beijing Olympic Games 2008. Kicking the first shot is ChillyCraps from tropical Singapore.
ChillyCraps is a mechanical engineering undergraduate at the National University of Singapore. He tries very hard to link everything with engineering with the help of his blog.
Old records are broken and new ones set in the sports arena, and the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be setting some new engineering record as well. Upon its time of completion, the China National Swimming Centre, or more affectionately known as the 鈥淲ater Cube鈥�, will be the largest ETFE structure in the world. (I know a cube has all its sides of equal length, but let鈥檚 not get too particular here)
Ethylene Tetrafluoroethylene, or ETFE in short, is the latest material in building technology. It is transparent, tough, corrosion resistant, and it鈥檚 lightweight. It offers flexibility that allows numerous possibilities in design for the architects, such as the unique bubbles in the walls and roofing of the Water Cube. There are over 3000 such bubbles of different sizes in the Water Cube design. In fact, its transparent property allows the Water Cube to operate as a green house, absorbing solar energy and reducing energy consumption, saving on as much as 30% of energy cost. Talking about 鈥渟tate of the art鈥� meeting 鈥渨ork of art鈥�.
The Water Cube was designed by Australian firm PTW Architects, Arup from United Kingdom and China State Construction Engineering Corporation. Construction will be a cooperation between Vector Foiltec of Germany and Shenyang Yuanda Aluminiun Industry Engineering. The ETFE film is supplied by Asahi Glass of Japan. With so much international cooperation, we see the Olympics spirit even before the race started!
I am no architect or designer by training, but this super-modern structure sure got me excited. I鈥檓 sure that even after the Olympic Games, the Water Cube is going to add vibrancy and life to Beijing, and sets the pace for more out of the box (or, cube) building designs in China.
