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Architecture News

Beijing's Water Cube Reopens

By Joann Gonchar, FAIA
August 23, 2010

Beijing’s Water Cube
Photo courtesy Forrec
Related Links: Inside Beijing’s Bubble Box National Swimming Center

Earlier this month, after almost a year of reconstruction, what is being touted as Asia’s largest water park opened inside the bubble-like ETFE walls of Beijing’s National Aquatics Center.

The building, commonly known as the Water Cube, was designed by Australian architecture firm PTW and China Construction Design International as the site of aquatics events during the 2008 Olympic Games. It still contains pools for recreational swimming and competition, but now it also houses a 140,000-square-foot leisure hall created by Toronto-based planning and design firm Forrec.

The park has cotton-candy-colored jellyfish suspended from the ceiling and attractions that include a wave pool, a 500-foot-long “lazy river,” a nearly vertical slide that guests enter via a launch capsule, and a 45-foot-wide funnel slide called “the tornado.” 
KEYWORDS: pools

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Joann gonchar

Joann Gonchar, FAIA, LEED AP, is deputy editor at Architectural Record. She joined RECORD in 2006, after working for eight years at its sister publication, Engineering News-Record. Before starting her career as a journalist, Joann worked for several architecture firms and spent three years in Kobe, Japan, with the firm Team Zoo, Atelier Iruka. She earned a Master of Architecture degree from the University of Pennsylvania and a Bachelor of Arts from Brown University. She is licensed to practice architecture in New York State.

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