Case study:    Watercube_Beijing National Aquatics Center_ PTW Architects, CSCEC, CCDI,  Arup

Reading:   On Growth and form_ D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson

Nature and the notion of organic have always been of much interest from architects designers and urban planners. Extensive theoretical studies, as well as architectural applications, have attempted to simulate nature, by extracting forms, geometries and principles found in living organisms.

The Beijing National Aquatics Center designed by  PTW Architects, CSCEC, CCDI, and Arup is one of the most recent examples of applying natural systems in architectural design processes. In this building, vastly known as the Watercube, the strict geometry found in water bubbles was used as an inspiration for the exterior of the building, forming an iridescent cellular façade that diffuses natural light. The continuous skin, made by the ETFE material, was created as a steel structure housed in a cavity, filled by platonic solid units, that seem to be completely random, but in reality are different units that are repeated to the whole exterior of the building. The algorithmic relations that form the façade and roof of the Watercube, as well as the multiplicity of their units have been subject to great debate about the application of parametricism  in architectural and urban design context.

The former principles of natural forms were long before theoretically analyzed from  D’Arcy Wentworth Thompson in his book On Growth and form, almost a century ago. In his book, and particularly in the chapter On the Theory of Transformation, Or the Comparison of Related Forms, D’Arcy sets the basis of parametric design, at a conceptual level, through analyzing and comparing natural forms using mathematical justifications. The author explored the interrelations of growth, form and physical forces found in different relative species and the topological similarity of family variations, through grid and co-axial transformations and stretching of the natural geometries and structures of living organisms (leaves, fishes, animals, etc.). Though this study was carried out in a two dimensional level, it is implied that it can be extended into a three dimensional one, extrapolating important relations and principles between relative species, through breaking down the geometries at fractal basis. The notion of topology as a concept, that is evident in D’Arcy;s study, establishes a contemporary parametric design approach in a conceptual level.

As a future research, I would be highly interested in researching and comparing the new digital logics that are found in the recent parametric architectural examples, as well as exploring the relations that form them in a three dimensional level.

Image source: http://www.l-a-v-a.net/projects/beijing-watercube/

Thompson wrote On Growth and form in the maturity of a career that lay somewhat outside the mainstream of the biological sciences of his day. His writings were a large contribution for the study of morphology. On Growth and Form is essentially an attempt to establish a concept of organic form based upon the physical and mathematical laws governing the development and function of organisms. He demonstrates in this chapter that how organic forms once put in a Cartesian grid can change forms in the same species and how this method could be used to find missing parts in the series of relative species

During the debate in the class we found the book is more of a concept and basically starts with the theory of transformation and is solidly based upon the laws of Newtonian Physics. All the experiments D’Arcy conducted were in 2D and not in 3D and gives a mathematical approach to the biological forms. He tries to show how the relationship between similar species is still there but changing their coordinates and the position of the parts changes. It’s a form finding method found over 100 years ago and gives us an idea of multiplicity during that era. Topology has been explained as a concept here with no real results. It’s a relation of a part to a whole.

The Next part of the critical analysis was The Water Cube-Beijing National Aquatics Centre by ARUP. The structure is made up of the soap bubbles which symbolise the square in the Chinese culture. The beautiful geometry is based on Weaire Phalen foam structure with an array of soap bubbles where 75% of the cells have 14 faces and the other 12 faces. In spite of the complete regularity, the structure when viewed at different angle looks completely random and organic. The polyhedron structure works perfectly as an extremely energy efficient and possibly the most earthquake resistant building. The water cube is a steel space frame structure with 4000 ETFE bubbles, the material being 8 times thinner than even a penny, which are pumped in with a low pressure. The building captures 20% of the incident solar energy and requires 90% less potable water than an equivalent building and uses 55% less artificial lighting. The ETFE IS 1% of glass weight and acts as a thermal insulator. The whole structure weighs almost as much as the Eiffel tower.

Research line:

After reading On growth and form, I’m interested in studying and researching more about Topology in Architecture. Architectural topology is a mutation of form, structure, context and interwoven patterns and dynamic complexity in space. Topological space differs from Cartesian space within which it forms different forms. It’s a process of continuous deformation. There are differentiable dynamic systems in architecture like chaos theory and fractal geometry. Would like to research on the role of topology in architecture and which structure/buildings it can be applied to.

Image reference-http://futuresplus.net/tag/topology/

WATER CUBE

Beijing National Aquatics Center – 2008

The water cube is an aquatic center won in a competition by PTW architects and built for the swimming competitions of the 2008 summer Olympics. The ecologically friendly water cube maximized social and economic standards. One of the concepts the architects used was to build on natural process of using soap bubbles by building with Weaire-Phelan structure. When two bubbles meet, they form a flat angle to build on. They then unified the angle at  105 degrees.

The second concept is using the square shape which symbolizes the Chinese culture, where the cube signifies earth and the circle of the stadium represents Heaven. However since all bubble are at the same angle hence similar, the whole volume was rotated before it was sliced into a square in order to get a façade with bubbles shapes of different size depending of the cut line position. That is why it looks random while it actually is very regular. The architects and engineers used the state of art technology and materials to get an energy efficient building. The 100,000 sq. ETFE plastic used is the largest clad structure in the world. It is very thin and recognized for its light weight characteristics – it weighs 1% of the weight of glass. As well it allows natural light to penetrate requiring 55% less artificial light. By having a double sheet design, it creates an opaque insulating skin which captures solar energy to heat the interior and the pools. This makes it an energy efficient building. As well, the double sheet concept creates fluidity and continuity between the interior and exterior. Yet the most impressing feature of ETFE is that when it catches fire, it simply melts away instead of burning and spreading the fire, and it instantly stops when the fire is put away. It is also water efficient since it harvests rain water and has a backwash system, recycles and filtrates allowing the building to require 90% less potable water than a typical construction. The notion of performance is very important in this building; the nodes and connections used resemble a tinker toy and are built in a way to make the building the most earthquake resistant structure known.

I am interested in understanding and experimenting with the same systematic way that these architects had. Researching with materials, building advanced structures, and implementing sustainable and efficient solutions all together would be a great win in my opinion. By moving towards a sustainable architecture, spreading the word by showing diagrams of efficiency over time and try to apply it in new constructions, even in old ones, when possible, would make the world a better place.