China’s National Swim Center will be the venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympics swimming events. It will seat 17,000.
From Inhabitat:
The skin’s material is just as innovative, its structural properties made possible by a lightweight and transparent Teflon called ETFE. The particular species of Teflon is designed to react to changing light conditions, which will create stunning visual effects for both visitors to the Watercube and to millions of TV spectators.
Soap bubbles were the inspiration for the design. The frame holding the ETFE panels is comprised of steel tubes welded to steel nodes. There are 4000 bubbles in total, but only 15 individual shapes in the walls and 7 in the roof. Those pieces repeat. The ETFE panels are double wall pillows. Each one is permanently inflated with an air pump when it is installed. In the top two construction pictures below you can see that some have been inflated and others have not.
For more details about the design process, check out this article by Tristram Carfrae of Arup, the engineers.
The crazy building in the background is the Beijing National Stadium, also known as the bird’s nest. It will be the venue for the track and field events.
