On Olympian Architecture
The 2008 Olympics are going to be way better than 2004. Aside from the fact that Katie Couric and Bob Costas will hopefully be either dead or retired, the stadium looks like it will be absolutely awesome.
I'm not talking about the main stadium right now. While the main stadium looks like it will be quite nice, it doesn't really break any new grounds as far as stadium design goes (Although I haven't seen the inside yet, so based on the swimming stadium, I may yet be amazed). What I'm referring to is the often-overlooked Swimming Stadium.
The Swimming Center which they call the Water Cube, if they do go with this plan, is absolutely breathtaking. The building looks like a giant rectangular block of soap bubbles, or living cells. From afar it looks like a perfect rectangle, but up close, each cell is actually slightly bulbous, adding to the illusion of bubbles. Also, the cell comparison is particularly apt for the Olympic Games — thousands of individual specialised components, coming together and working in unison to create a more meaningful whole. The outer walls are supported by an irregular grid of white, bone-shaped supports, which are just visible under the bubble-skin, further adding to the illusion of some kind of mathematical interpretation of the human form.
While the outside is breathtaking on it's own (the choice of a monotone, deep blue structure creates an aura around the building — although the walls appear to be translucent, so light shines through from inside (or maybe is reflected through the translucent, curved bubbles) and creates a literal glow to the building)), the inside is where it really shines. Typically, stadiums are large rooms made of bare construction components. While architects generally try to jazz things up at eye level, the walls and ceiling are almost always left undesigned, and the roof is held up with bare structural tubes. I've always thought that if the ceiling is a maze of air conditioning ducts and pipes of various sorts, the architect hasn't really done there job. This is definitely not the case in the Water Cube.
The room is almost garish in it's simplicity. A big rectangular box, with two rectangular pools in the middle flanked on either side by bleachers. The colors are similarly deep and moody inside here, but wisely no structural elements are exposed — it looks as if you are really in a big room, rather than under a suspended tent roof. The only source of obvious light in the room is the pool itself (there is supplemental lighting shining up form behind the bleachers), making sure that there is no mistake what the center of attention here is — the athletes (which unfortunately seems to have been partially forgotten in recent games). The diving tower rises up form one end of the room like a monolithic pipe organ, also adding a subtle nod to the three-tiered podium for competition winners.
From what I can see so far, the jumbo-tron has been replaced by a floating circular holograph in the middle of the room, but this may have been added with artistic license. However, this would certainly be quite possible with a large ring of glass and a cluster of projectors in the middle, supported by near-invisible strings. I certainly hope this is actually the plan, as it would be a magnificent site, and further adds to the idea of the pool being the center-point — the screen are so unobtrusive that they literally disappear.
The one feature this stadium lacks, although I originally thought it had, is an Infinity Pool. When I first saw pictures of the outside of the stadium, I thought it was actually a photo of a raised pool (this shows how obvious the illusion of water is in this design). An infinity pool is one where one or more sides is raised above ground level, and is made out of a thing, shiny material (or in this case, glass). I thought that the pool was actually one of these, and illusions of what could be possible with this filled my head. I imagined the divers jumping into a seemingly regular pool to start their race (they could only use this gimmick on the longer races), and once they are in the water, the entire pool lifting up out of the floor, seemingly a solid block of water floating in the middle of the room, mimicking the outward appearance of the building itself. Alas, this is apparently not the case, so I'll have to submit my suggestion and wait for 2012.
All of this commentary is based on the video, (in the right sidebar) so please go watch it yourself and be amazed. I'm eagerly looking forward to 2008.
I'm not talking about the main stadium right now. While the main stadium looks like it will be quite nice, it doesn't really break any new grounds as far as stadium design goes (Although I haven't seen the inside yet, so based on the swimming stadium, I may yet be amazed). What I'm referring to is the often-overlooked Swimming Stadium.
The Swimming Center which they call the Water Cube, if they do go with this plan, is absolutely breathtaking. The building looks like a giant rectangular block of soap bubbles, or living cells. From afar it looks like a perfect rectangle, but up close, each cell is actually slightly bulbous, adding to the illusion of bubbles. Also, the cell comparison is particularly apt for the Olympic Games — thousands of individual specialised components, coming together and working in unison to create a more meaningful whole. The outer walls are supported by an irregular grid of white, bone-shaped supports, which are just visible under the bubble-skin, further adding to the illusion of some kind of mathematical interpretation of the human form.
While the outside is breathtaking on it's own (the choice of a monotone, deep blue structure creates an aura around the building — although the walls appear to be translucent, so light shines through from inside (or maybe is reflected through the translucent, curved bubbles) and creates a literal glow to the building)), the inside is where it really shines. Typically, stadiums are large rooms made of bare construction components. While architects generally try to jazz things up at eye level, the walls and ceiling are almost always left undesigned, and the roof is held up with bare structural tubes. I've always thought that if the ceiling is a maze of air conditioning ducts and pipes of various sorts, the architect hasn't really done there job. This is definitely not the case in the Water Cube.
The room is almost garish in it's simplicity. A big rectangular box, with two rectangular pools in the middle flanked on either side by bleachers. The colors are similarly deep and moody inside here, but wisely no structural elements are exposed — it looks as if you are really in a big room, rather than under a suspended tent roof. The only source of obvious light in the room is the pool itself (there is supplemental lighting shining up form behind the bleachers), making sure that there is no mistake what the center of attention here is — the athletes (which unfortunately seems to have been partially forgotten in recent games). The diving tower rises up form one end of the room like a monolithic pipe organ, also adding a subtle nod to the three-tiered podium for competition winners.
From what I can see so far, the jumbo-tron has been replaced by a floating circular holograph in the middle of the room, but this may have been added with artistic license. However, this would certainly be quite possible with a large ring of glass and a cluster of projectors in the middle, supported by near-invisible strings. I certainly hope this is actually the plan, as it would be a magnificent site, and further adds to the idea of the pool being the center-point — the screen are so unobtrusive that they literally disappear.
The one feature this stadium lacks, although I originally thought it had, is an Infinity Pool. When I first saw pictures of the outside of the stadium, I thought it was actually a photo of a raised pool (this shows how obvious the illusion of water is in this design). An infinity pool is one where one or more sides is raised above ground level, and is made out of a thing, shiny material (or in this case, glass). I thought that the pool was actually one of these, and illusions of what could be possible with this filled my head. I imagined the divers jumping into a seemingly regular pool to start their race (they could only use this gimmick on the longer races), and once they are in the water, the entire pool lifting up out of the floor, seemingly a solid block of water floating in the middle of the room, mimicking the outward appearance of the building itself. Alas, this is apparently not the case, so I'll have to submit my suggestion and wait for 2012.
All of this commentary is based on the video, (in the right sidebar) so please go watch it yourself and be amazed. I'm eagerly looking forward to 2008.
posted by swalker | Thursday, September 09, 2004
