The National Aquatics Center, Beijing

at 9:31 AM

The 2008 Beijing Olympic Swimming Center, the National Aquatics Center also known as the Water

Cube, was the collaborative effort between Arup, PTW Architects, and the China State Construction &

Engineering Co. The competition-winning consortium was awarded the design commission in July

2003. The “bubble” structure intended to combine the lightweight, insulating and light-diffusing

qualities of a greenhouse. Thus, for the skin of the building, Ethylene Tetrafluoro-ethylene (ETFE)

cladding was specified to promote de-materialization - an efficient and lightweight membrane pillow-

panel construction that does not require a secondary structure, yet provides improved insulation over

conventional glazing.
The Water Cube, which housed the swimming center facilities, was sited next to the iconic Bird’s Nest

- the Olympic Stadium designed by Herzog & de Meuron. Its geometry is based on the interface

between soap bubbles, researched by Belgian scientist Joseph Plateau as well as Professor Denis

Weaire & Dr Robert Phelan of Trinity College in Dublin. Mimicking the soup bubble structure, the

swimming center’s pattern is composed of sets of four lines coming to a point at 104.9 degrees, which

is the tetrahedral angle.

Tristram Carfrae, structural engineer of Arup, explored the structure by using the Fablon software for

non-linear analysis. An accurate physical model would consist of 22,000 structural elements and 4,000

ETFE cladding pillow-panels. The sizes of all the structural elements were made of simple circular

tubes. Those were automatically selected by the engineering software, and then welded to the

spherical nodes at each end to form the bubble structure frame. The structure was designed to be

energy absorbent for seismically active Beijing. The proposed ETFE pillows provides for a continuous

and insulting skin for the walls and roof.

Some of the bubble cladding are as large as 9 meters across. The roof is made of 7 different bubble-

types, the walls of 15, which are repeated throughout. Despite this repetition, a random pattern
is created. Each pillow is permanently inflated by a pump, and this internal air pressure

transforms a 0.2-mm-thick plastic into a cladding panel capable of spanning relatively long

distances. In pillow form, ETFE is also a better insulator than glass and, when equipped

with frit patterns for shading, achieves the desired light-diffusing effect. While the material

is translucent blue during the day, at night it is lit by an LED system.

ETFE is a tough, durable plastic closely related to PTFE, commonly known as Teflon. It

transmits more UV light than glass and, like Teflon, is non-stick, non-staining and therefore

requires no cleaning. An estimated 20,000 people are expected to use the Water Cube at
any one time. And although ETFE is combustible, it is fired-rated and complies with China's

prescriptive building code with its performance in fire safety. It is non-flammable, self-

venting (it melts itself) and lets the smoke out of the building.

The ETFE cushions allow a high level of natural daylight into the building, which passively

heats up the building and pool water and thus maximizing energy efficiency. The variation

in shading of the facades is achieved by screening the membrane with translucent fritting.

The material allows for ventilation of heat out of the cavity in summer and containment of

heat in winter to help further reduce energy consumption. Furthermore, in order to protect

the membrane façade from corrosion due to condensation and evaporative chlorine, air

nozzles have been placed around the perimeter of the building spraying air up the walls to

regulate temperature and provide constant air movement.

-- Clara Wong

References and Images:

-LeCuyer, Annette. ETFE: Technology and Design. Basel; Boston; Berlin: Birkhauser, 2008.

-Carfrae, Tristram. “Engineering the Water Cube” Architecture Australia. V. 95, n. 4, July-Aug 2006:

102-5.

-Merrick, Jay. “The new star in the brilliant Arup firmament is structural engineer Tristram Carfrae,

whose exploration of structures deserves great acclaim” Blueprint (London, England). N. 252, Mar

2007: 31.

-Pohl, Ethel Baraona. Watercube: the book. Beijing National Aquatics Centre, People’s Republic of

China. Barcelona, Spain: Actar, 2008.