Beijing Water Cube

Another award-winner, the Beijing National Aquatics Centre - known as the Water Cube - has already attracted a lot of attention and amazed the world at the Beijing Olympics.

Heralding a revolution in design thinking, this project incorporated innovation in every facet of its design, from the iconic structure based on organic cells, to its conservation of resources.

Combining our structural, facade and fire engineering expertise, along with acoustics, transport, communications and environmental contributions, our input into this prestigious showcase project was critical.

For example, we created a program that would automatically model the entire structure in 25 minutes, rather than the months that manual modelling would take. And without the input of our fire engineers, the Water Cube's design would never have been realised.

Delivery of the project has been a success for Arup, demonstrating again the triumph of inspiration and ideas.