PTW Architects' John Bilmon is in danger of becoming a celebrity. Well – if not Bilmon personally then certainly his creation, China's National Aquatic Centre – or what is now universally known as the Watercube. Even before the Olympic Games officially open on the 8th of August the Watercube has become an international symbol of the Beijing Games and one of China's most recognisable structures.
Typical of the chorus of praise for the Australian firm's design was this report in January 2008 by the UK's Daily Mail
The Watercube has been dubbed the "cool" building of the Games. The building's design and its translucent, blue-toned outer skin make it look like a cube of bubbles - like "bubble wrap. Forty-two gold medals will be up for grabs at the venue during the Olympics, which start on August 8. "There are many different buildings in the world and I believe this could be one of the most significant sports venues," said Zheng Fang, an architect and chief of the design team for China Construction Design International. The Chinese company collaborated with Australian company PTW Architects. The venue has 6,000 permanent and 11,000 temporary seats. Like the 91,000-seat National Stadium – the "Bird's Nest," – both are seen as works of art and will anchor the Olympic Green area.
In the Beijing subway huge billboards advertising leading Chinese electronics brands feature the glowing blue shape of the PTW Watercube, and the Cube seems to make an appearance during every ad break on Chinese television. In 2004 the PTW design even pulled off an award at the Venice Biennale. Whether or not the swimming pool sees world records being smashed, the Cube seems certain to become an international icon.
The success of PTW's design for the Olympic swimming venue is the most visible example of a swag of Australian success stories for the upcoming Beijing Games.
According to Austrade, 40 Australian companies have clinched more than 50 commercial deals connected to Beijing's hosting of the 2008 Olympic Games. They include architecture, construction, building materials and technology for sports venues, marketing, security, training, logistics, waste management, merchandising, ceremonies and design.
The success of Australian firms in Beijing has been partly driven by Australia's unquestioned expertise and knowledge of sport and sporting events. But more specifically, it was the universal acclaim for the 2000 Sydney Games that made the crucial difference. Even China, which had been bitterly and very publicly disappointed losing out to Sydney for the 2000 games, was quick to embrace the success of Sydney and take advantage of a range of Australian expertise.
Headline success stories have of course been the Olympic venues, notably PTW's Watercube, Cox Architects design for the Olympic yachting base in coastal Qingdao, and Richard Court and Associate's design work for the Hong Kong Olympic Equestrian venue.
The honour roll of Australian winners also includes:
- Bluescope Lysaght supplied steel roofing solutions to the 60,000 seat Tianjin football (soccer stadium) and to the Fencing Hall.
- BVN Architects designed a number of temporary and permanent facilities including archery, hockey, rowing, tennis and rafting.
- BHP Billiton supplied the raw materials for approximately 6,000 medals to be awarded during the Olympics.
- Dynalite installed energy-saving lighting control systems in eight of China's new Olympic Venues, including the Shenyang Sports Stadium, the Tianjin Olympic Centre Stadium and the National Fencing Hall.
- Anti Wave installed swimming and waterpolo equipment for the National Aquatic Centre.
- Sports Technology International manufactured synthetic turf in Victoria and installed it at the official hockey site for the Beijing Games.
- Maxxam International won the contract to produce the 2008 Olympic Torch Relay and worked with the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Games.
A Platform for Future Success
While the Beijing Games are literally the greatest show on earth, it's likely the Australian involvement is just the start of even larger opportunities in China. Sporting events and participation in sport will continue to grow, both at the elite level and at the community and local level. Even cricket and Aussie Rules football are now being taken up enthusiastically
Australia's skills in designing and building everything and anything to do with sports - from major stadiums to tennis courts and golf courses - will be much sought after.
Major planned sporting events include Guangzhou's hosting of the 2010 Asian Games and Shenzhen's hosting of the 2011 world Universiade Games. Most commentators predict China will launch a determined bid for Football World Cup in the near future. And of course there will be Shanghai, home to the 2010 World Expo.
Sport and Feng Shui
Beijing's Games will be launched on the eighth day of the eight month in 2008 (at 8 pm). The choice is no mere happenstance. Eight happens to be one of the most auspicious numbers in Chinese tradition and culture. The deliberate selection of dates hints at one of the most interesting, but largely overlooked aspects of the Games – the use of traditional elements in design and location of Olympic facilities.
Speaking at an architectural conference in Shanghai in June, PTW's John Bilmon noted that the major Games venues lie directly on the traditional north south axis that passes through the very centre of the Forbidden City and the heart of Beijing. The national Stadium (the bird's nest) and Swimming Stadium (Watercube) are aligned on the eastern and western sides respectively of this axis which bisects the Forbidden City eight kilometres to the north.
When the Ming emperor Yongle founded Beijing as his capital in 1420, the city plan was deliberately aligned along a north south axis. The axis runs directly through the middle of the Forbidden City and was used as the central feature to site all buildings and to plan the city. In traditional Chinese Feng Shui and city planning buildings were designed to face south, the source of positive energy (and also the sun during the harsh northern winter).
The use of a north south axis and the deliberate location of buildings to take advantage of natural features such as mountains, lakes and rivers was a key part of traditional Chinese geomancy or what is widely known as Feng Shui (literally wind and water).
The east-west location of the two major Olympic venues also make them a mirror for the Ming era Temple of Heaven and Temple of Agriculture which lie either side of the same axis to the south of the Forbidden City, beyond the old Qianmen Gate. Directly south of Tiananmen Square this massive gate is the only surviving gate from original Ming city wall which was torn down in the 1950s and 1960s.
Beijing's north-south axis was also used as a central element in the development of the city's Central Axis Masterplan in 2002.
While the futuristic Watercube uses NASA technology, massively complex mathematical algorithms and is the first use in China of highly sophisticated EFT (ethylene-tetrafluoro ethylene) to create an inflated outer skin, Bilmon says PTW also took into account a number of specific Chinese cultural and traditional design elements.
First there is the shape of the structure. Bilmon said they looked at numerous iterations of curves and form for the building – but eventually settled on a square shape, one that conforms to centuries of traditional geometric layout of Chinese cities, towns and even private dwellings.
Then there is the role of yin and yang, the ancient Chinese belief in the continual balancing and rebalancing of forces in man and nature. Bilmon says because the neighbouring National Stadium (the Bird's Nest) exuded very strong yang influences, PTW decided the Cube design would have to provide a counterbalance. Hence they decided to use the theme of water and its strong yin connotations. The rippling blue hues of the external skin of the Cube are the feminine counterpoint to the hard steel and metal lines and red colour of the Bird nest.
In Shanghai PTW has built one of China's first integrated inner city recreation and leisure complexes. Just a stone's throw from the densely populated Bund, PTW's structure is a modern design that Bilmon says also utilises the forms and shapes of the lattice work elements traditional found in the ornate teahouses of Shanghai and Jiangsu.
Other iconic buildings in China have borrowed from the canon of Chinese design, including the soaring Jinmao tower in Shanghai (look for the lines and form of Chinese pagodas) the stunning new Suzhou museum (which draws on the gardens and houses of classical Suzhou) and in Beijing the controversial dome shaped national theatre, which lies east of the Great Hall of the People.
The incorporation of traditional Chinese design elements – or non use as the case may be – has become a point of public debate in China. With some of the most daring and innovative buildings in the world being built in China there is a strong body of opinion that adopting Chinese elements should be a feature of all major buildings. Many local design institutes and architects argue that China is blindly using too many foreign designs and ideas, while ignoring its own strong traditions and heritage.
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