Any discussion of the now infamous Beijing Aquatics Center must begin with the supernatural Michael Phelps, whose fingernail-thin victory over Milorad Cavic in the 100 Meter Butterfly could only be topped by the thrill of an unprecedented eighth gold medal in the 4 x 100 team relay the following day. Yet amid the profusion of banal commentary provoked by Phelps' domination ("a truly magical performance," "history in the making," etc...), one could easily lose sight of a miracle of a different sort, one that—however much it may have become mere background curiosity in the heat of natatory combat—contributed in no small measure to the ambiance in Beijing. I refer to the 102 ft. high, 584 ft. long, naturally and artificially-lit, self-heated, transparent, translucent, steel-girded, fantasy of a structure double-clad in 4,000+ pillow-like segments of the wondrous polymer known as ETFE.

Night scene of Water Cube (Photo: TensileWorld)
Conception of the Water Cube began in July 2003 when the selection committee chose the proposal submitted by a consortium of architects and engineers (Peddle Thorp Walker of Sydney, Arup Structural Engineering of the U.K , and The China State Construction Engineering Corp). Like many memorable buildings, the Aquatics Center began as a philosophical notion—a notion that, in this case, benefited from the international bent of the consortium. The Chinese contributed the idea of the cube, which is central to Chinese culture and symbology; and the Australians came up with the notion of cladding the entire building in "bubbles," the two concepts acting in concert to envision a building that, with the help of 1000s of strategically placed LEDs, would resemble an enormous cube of uncontained water, miraculously stilled smack in the center of Beijing.

Broadly speaking, construction of the Cube proceeded in two phases: erection of the framing and installation of the cladding. The architects and engineers conceived of the internal structure, or skeleton, as an extension of the arcane Weaire-Phelan principle. In 1993, physicists Denis Weaire and Robert Phelan set out to find the answer to an aged scientific mystery—how the shape of soap bubbles is formed. They discovered that these shapes aspire toward maximal volume for minimal surface area; thus, they observed that cohering bubbles aren't round, but rather odd-sided polyhedrons, all clung together in an organic array of shared-sides that resembles naturally occurring structures: the honeycombs of a beehive or the osmotic renderings of a cell. They next developed a geographic model that reproduced this randomized lattice-work, then experimented with virtual slices of these shapes. The result is the seemingly-random (but repetitive enough to be feasible to construct) pattern visible on the exterior walls of the Cube. In tangible terms, then, the building's skeleton is constructed of steel girders—nothing intrinsically thrilling about that—but the shapes sketched by the girders are something else entirely. Not your usual complex of criss-crosses, of triangles and trusses, the Aquatic Center's members mimic the dazzlingly random patterns of agitated water.

Water Cube while under construction
But the illusion of a building made of bubbles could only be achieved via phase 2—the installation of the aforementioned ETFE. Technically known as "Ethylene tetrafluoroethylene," a fluorocarbon-based polymer first introduced by DuPont in the early 70s as "Tefzel," this versatile polymer is basically a plastic with incredible tensile strength.

ETFE is temperature-resistant, lightweight (1/100th the weight of glass), recyclable, non-toxic when exposed to flame (it actually shrinks away from heat, thus helping to vent smoke out of a burning building), highly insulative, non-porous, and non-stick. Even better, its high-tensile strength makes it easy to manipulate—it can be spun into thin sheets for ease of transport then inflated on-site to create the "pillow" effect of the Aquatics Center walls. It can also be finished in varying degrees of translucence—as transparent as glass or opaque as glass bricks—a quality that, along with thousands of LEDs installed in the individual ETFE sections, facilitates the Water Cube's phosphorescent metamorphoses.

Installation of ETFE cushions (Photo: TensileWorld)
So thanks to ETFE, the building is the essence of aquatic: as seen from above at night, blue-lit and luminescent, it achieves the uncanny illusion of a cuboid of purest water, the torrent suspended and stayed at the hand of some unseen electrical specter. Most anyone who caught a night-time glimpse would agree that the Cube fulfills the consortium's original aspiration.

Night scene of Water Cube
Back in 2004, one of the project's architects, Zhao Xiao Jun of China Construction Design International, said the Cube would ultimately reflect the "abstract relationship between man and water." I'd argue that the abstraction is achieved, that, thanks to ETFE's mutability—the way it can transmit or refract light, or withstand manipulations into all manner of asynchronous shapes—Zhao's goal is fulfilled. Through its incorporation of non-traditional spatiality and innovative materials, the Beijing Aquatics Center strikes that delicate balance between conception and execution, between the philosophical and functional, between the proposition of a structure meant to command a mood and the fulfillment of same as a living, breathing, and irresistibly illumined building.

Other buildings using ETFE as facade or roof material:

Khan Shatyry , Astana, KazakhstanAllianz Arena , Munich, Germany
Biota! aquarium , London, EnglandBeijing National Stadium , Beijing, China
Kansas City Power & Light District , Kansas City, MissouriEden Project , Cornwall, England


Joseph Starr lives in the Colorado mountains. He has been an English teacher, a Spanish translator, a no-nonsense bartender, a cantankerous bus driver, and a failed carpenter. He enjoys sitting, reclining, and using household appliances--all of which give him great authority as a product reviewer for 3rings .

More articles by Joseph at 3rings:


Dip D-Lighting
Spring Chair
At Salone: Pinch
At NeoCon: Audrey


Skate Study House
Small World for Two Persons
Hydrus
Aspen Sofa



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