National Geographic -
Megastructures: Beijing Water CubeEnglish | XviD | 480x352 | MP3 |
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Just in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, workers are
feverishly putting the finishing touches on the National Aquatics Centre – the
Beijing Water Cube. A stroke of design genius, this Olympic Megastructure is a
steel honeycomb-like frame enclosed entirely by a unique skin, modelled after
soap bubbles. Using 90 kilometres worth of steel in 22,000 beams following no
conventional straight lines, the Beijing Water Cube must be topped with 100,000
square metres of bubbles. Looking for a truly unique covering, the design team
focuses on ETFE – a light-weight plastic invented to protect spaceships from
cosmic radiation. Among ETFE’s unique properties, dot patterns on its surface
can trap solar energy in the winter and reflect solar energy in the summer,
keeping the building cool. The Beijing Water Cube is the largest ETFE
construction in the world, and because of its honeycomb-like structure, 3,500
ETFE bubbles must be cut individually, and sized. Factor in that the dimensions
have been created in Germany and must be translated into a Chinese database and
the Beijing Water Cube becomes a bit of a logistical nightmare. Beijing’s Water
Cube represents a true morphing of molecular science, architecture and
structural engineering.