Olympic Water Cube destined for retail

Known officially as the National Aquatics Centre, the "Water Cube", one of the two iconic venues for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, was unveiled on Monday. It's the public's first look at the building after a little more than three years of construction.

The Water Cube has been built to be converted to a shopping area and leisure centre with tennis courts, retail outlets, nightclubs and restaurants.

"This building was designed for use after the games," said John Pauline of PTW Architects, one of the lead architects on the Water Cube. "We were looking at 30 or 40 years from now."

Dubbed the "cool" building of the Games, the venue's design and its translucent, blue-toned outside skin make it look like a cube of bubbles - like "bubble wrap".

The outside skin is made of a Teflon-like material, ETFE (ethylene-tetrafluoroethylene).

Composed of two layers, it's separated by an interior passage that allows the building to breathe like a greenhouse.

The venue has 6,000 permanent and 11,000 temporary seats.

The Water Cube was built at a cost of more than US$200 million (Euro 136 million), with donations of US$110 million (Euro 75 million) from people in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan Province.

There will be 37 venues for the Olympics; Beijing is the site of 31 - 12 new, 11 renovated, and eight temporary - structures. Most are located in four clusters in the north of the city.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews