2008 Olympic Venues
The two most impressive Olympic venues are the National Aquatics Center or simply the “Water Cube” and the “Bird’s Nest.”
The “Water Cube,” a palatial structure with an area of 80,000 sq meters that is white in the daytime and blue at night, was completed January 28, 2008. Underneath a pure and simple facade, this translucent building embodies a complex and unrestricted framework as well as environmentally advanced technology that has become a landmark structure.
According to the Official Olympic web site, the shapes woven within the steel framework of the “Water Cube” symbolize a membrane of water molecules…a “pure and natural beauty.” Josh says the membrane structure ‘cloth’ is made of translucent teflon. But the welding of the irregular steel framework was the most difficult part of the design and construction.
The web site goes on to say that the “designers created the steel structure of the “Water Cube” based on the so-called “bubble theory,” a somewhat controversial theory because of its many unsolvable problems. When the designers of the National Aquatics Center decided to practice the bubble theory, it drew great attention in the international architecture field. Almost all of the architects that have studied the bubble theory have come to visit the venue construction site.”
“It took only 10 months for workers to build the large-scale, irregular steel structure of the Olympic venue, which is considered a miracle in the history of world architecture.”
“The design and construction of the ‘Water Cube’ steel structure stunned the whole world,” the web site goes on to say. “The Guardian, a British newspaper, published an article calling it a masterpiece of theoretical physics.”
Leave it to the Chinese to wax ecstatic. But it IS impressive! But nowhere do the Chinese say that the architects were all from out of the country.
The “Bird’s Nest” lies adjacent to the the “Water Cube” and creates a nice design foil. At night the inside of the shell is lit up of course and the structure of the actual venue inside is beautifully illuminated. A man made “lake” in the shape of a dragon frames the building as seen blow in the model at the Beijing Exposition.
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Tags: Beijing, China, Joshua, Olympics
Zoe
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