EXISTING TECHNOLOGIES INSPIRED BY

nature
 WATER CUBE

T he National Aquatics Center, also known

as the Water Cube, is located on Olympic
Green with the Bird’s Nest Stadium, on
Beijing's north-south axis.

It was built as the main natatorium for the

Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and became
known as one of the Games' iconic structures.
It will host the curling at the 2022 Winter
Olympics.
“This unique and inspired
Designed in Accordance with Traditional design was based on the
Chinese Culture
way soap bubbles come
This seemingly simple "cube" was designed
according to traditional Chinese culture as well together in a 12 or 14-
as modern science and technology. Chinese
people traditionally believed that Earth is sided cell structure.”
square and heaven is round.
The Feature of the Water Cube
The square is the most basic form of ancient
Chinese urban architecture, which reflects the The Water Cube got its name due to its huge
rules of social life represented by ethics in cube structure with the shape of soap bubbles
Chinese culture. Chinese people believe that on it. The Water Cube was designed by PTW
nothing can be accomplished without norms or Architects and Ove Arup.
standards (‘No rules; no square garden,’ as the
The surface of these “soap bubbles” will reflect
classic saying goes).
sunlight and makes the building a water
Therefore, many Chinese architectural droplet glistening in the sunlight, from which it
structures embody this philosophy. For got its nickname: The Water Cube.
example, the blue Water Cube complements
The Water Cube is 177 meters square and 30
the red, round Bird’s Nest in Beijing Olympic
meters high, and has a capacity of 17,000 seats
Park.
Uses an Advanced Membrane Structure

The Water Cube is an innovative building

because of its architecture and structure, with
a high technological content. The building’s
exterior protection adopts a new
environmentally friendly and energy-saving
ETFE membrane material with a coverage area
of 100,000 square meters, which is the world's
largest ETFE application project.

The ETFE membrane materials have a low

mass, are tough, and can absorb more sunlight.
They don’t ignite spontaneously and have a
wonderful self-cleaning function. The material
can't be stained by the dust. When the wind
blows, the dust goes away. In addition, the
Water Cube also has an environmental function
to collect and recycle rainwater. Rainwater
that falls on the Water Cube’s roof will be
collected into a central storage pool below the
building.
The Water Park in the Water Cube

The new water amusement park inside the

“ Water Cube is the largest and the best of its
kind in China, allowing a functional capacity of
The building’s exterior 6,000 people.

It is an ideal place for families with kids to

protection adopts a new escape the summer heat and have fun. It is
environmentally friendly equipped with many amusement facilities,
such as wave machines, speed slides and aqua
and energy-saving ETFE loops.

membrane material The water temperature is said to be controlled

at 23°C(73°F) in summer and 30°C(86°F) in
” winter. Coffee shops, leisure centers and VIP
boxes are also available inside the water park.
 LOTUS-INSPIRED
HYDROPHOBIA

T
he lotus effect, otherwise known as
superhydrophobicity, is the effect that
can be observed on the leaves of the
Lotus flower, where water is not able to wet
the surface and simply rolls off. This high
repellence is due to the nanostructure of the
plane, where micro-protrusions coated in waxy
hydrophobic materials repel the water. In
addition to this, this process is also a self-
cleaning mechanism as dirt particles also stick
to the water molecule. Inspired by this process,
CeNano developed nanotol – a hydrophobic
(water-repelling), lipophobic (fat-repelling),
and oleophobic (oil-repelling) sealant that can
be sprayed to substances to create their own
superhydrophobicity.

“water is not able to wet

the surface and simply
rolls off”
 BIRD-SAFE
GLASS

I
t was said that many birds die every year as a result of directly
flying into glasses. Birds cannot simply recognize the
transparent structure making them vulnerable when flying
into it. Examples of this transparent structures are your windows
and glass doors that are big enough for them to pass through.
The existing problem resulted to a company's development of
Ornilux Birdsafe Glass, inspired from the UV reflective Strands in
a Spider Webs, which the birds can see and avoid, making it a clear
mutual benefit for both species, and so Ornilux sought to
replicate this with their Criss-crossing UV glass.
 B
ees in a hive behave as a single unit. Each bee can sense
what job needs to be done and gets on it, without being
instructed to do so. They instinctively know what is
expected of them based on where they live in the hive and what
the adjacent bees are doing.

The system and process used by bees inspired swarm technology.

A group of tiny robots, controlled by a central computer, can act

SWARM
as a single unit to take on complex tasks by communicating with
one another and dividing the tasks among themselves. Each
robot can think for itself to the best extent possible and acts

DRONE
primarily on the local information it gathers, i.e., by observing
adjacent robots. No robot is in charge and a robot can easily
replace another, should a unit malfunction. This technology can

TECHNOLOGY be very useful in search and rescue missions. Moreover, this

technology is currently used to improve the efficiency of power
grids.
BIONIC HANDLING
ASSISTANT

R
obotic arms may be one of the major
breakthroughs of this century that
revolutionized how factories work
but being inspired by the human arm, it is made
of rigid parts that restricts certain movements.
As people continue to find ways to innovate
things, the bionic handling assistant is a robotic
arm inspired from an elephant’s trunk and aims
to solve this problem hence, providing wider
possibilities. It is comprised pf plastic disc and
used compressed air in order to bend in any
way to mimic an elephant’s trunk.
Furthermore, it also makes use of FinGripper
technology which enables it to grab any fragile
or oddly shaped objects more safely.