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The Beijing National Aquatics Center (), also officially known as the National Aquatics Center,〔Official Olympics Site (National Aquatics Center )〕 and colloquially known as the Water Cube (), is an aquatics center that was built alongside Beijing National Stadium in the Olympic Green for the swimming competitions of the 2008 Summer Olympics. Despite its nickname, the building is not an actual cube, but a cuboid (a rectangular box). Ground was broken on December 24, 2003, and the Center was completed and handed over for use on January 28, 2008.〔(National Aquatics Center Delivered for Use ), Beijing 2008 Olympics Official Web Site, January 1, 2008,〕 Swimmers at the Water Cube broke 25 world records during the 2008 Olympics. After the 2008 Olympics, the building underwent a 200 million Yuan revamp to turn half of its interior into a water park. The building officially reopened on August 8, 2010. It will host the curling events at the 2022 Winter Olympics. ==Architecture== In July 2003, the Water Cube design was chosen from 10 proposals in an international architectural competition for the aquatic center project.〔(【引用サイトリンク】 The Water Cube, National Aquatics Centre, Beijing ) 〕 The Water Cube was specially designed and built by a consortium made up of PTW Architects (an Australian architecture firm),〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Water Cube - National Swimming Centre )〕 Arup international engineering group, CSCEC (China State Construction Engineering Corporation), and CCDI (China Construction Design International) of Shanghai.〔(Welcome to WaterCube, the experiment that thinks it's a swimming pool ) by Peter Rogers in The Guardian, May 6, 2004〕 The Water Cube's design was initiated by a team effort: the Chinese partners felt a square was more symbolic to Chinese culture and its relationship to the Bird's Nest stadium, while the Sydney-based partners came up with the idea of covering the 'cube' with bubbles, symbolising water. Contextually the cube symbolises earth whilst the circle (represented by the stadium) represents heaven. Hence symbolically the water cube references Chinese symbolic architecture. Comprising a steel space frame, it is the largest ETFE clad structure in the world with over 100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness. The ETFE cladding allows more light and heat penetration than traditional glass, resulting in a 30% decrease in energy costs.〔 The outer wall is based on the Weaire–Phelan structure, a structure devised from the natural pattern of bubbles in soap lather.〔(Beijing venues – National Aquatics Center ), on BBC Sports.〕 In the true Weaire-Phelan structure the edge of each cell is curved in order to maintain 109.5 degree angles at each vertex (satisfying Plateau's rules), but of course as a structural support system each beam was required to be straight so as to better resist axial compression. The complex Weaire–Phelan pattern was developed by slicing through bubbles in soap foam, resulting in more irregular, organic patterns than foam bubble structures proposed earlier by the scientist Kelvin.〔 Using the Weaire–Phelan geometry, the Water Cube's exterior cladding is made of 4,000 ETFE bubbles, some as large as across, with seven different sizes for the roof and 15 for the walls.〔 〕 The structure had a capacity of 17,000〔 during the games that is being reduced to 7,000. It also has a total land surface of 65,000 square meters and will cover a total of .〔 Although called the Water Cube, the aquatic center is really a rectangular box (cuboid) square and high.〔 The building's popularity has spawned many copycat structures throughout China.〔Barbara Demick. ("Beijing's Water Cube Still Drawing Crowds" ). ''Los Angeles Times''. Aug. 13, 2009.〕 For example, there is one-to-one copy of the facade near the ferry terminal in Macau – the ''Casino Oceanus'' by Paul Steelman.〔(Casino Oceanus – The Unofficial Casino Oceanus Website from ''www.oceanus.asia'' )〕 File:Water Cube The National Aquatics Center Chaoyang Beijing.jpg|Water Cube The National Aquatics Center in Chaoyang File:国家游泳中心夜景.jpg|The National Aquatics Center at night File:Cubeinside.jpg|Inside the Water Cube on August 14, 2008 File:National Aquatics Center Construction.jpg|The Beijing National Aquatics Center while under construction 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Beijing National Aquatics Center」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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