Engineering and design firm Arup has again triumphed with its work on the National Aquatics Centre, aka the Water Cube. For two years running Arup has received the ACEA’s top prize, with the Water Cube announced as Project of the Year at the 2008 Association of Consulting Engineers Australia (ACEA) Awards for Excellence.

In presenting the award, ACEA chief executive Megan Motto said, “It was obvious to the whole world that this project was extremely well executed to create an outstanding and iconic building.… Of particular note was the wide range of engineering disciplines brought to the project and coordinated by one firm – Arup – ensuring the work was completed on time and within budget.”

The Water Cube also won the ACEA’s Gold Award for International/Export Projects. These prestigious awards are the latest accolades in a consistent stream of recognition this iconic building is receiving, coming just days after it was awarded the Sir William Hudson Award, the highest honour at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards.

In 2003, Arup, PTW Architects and China Construction Design Institute (CCDI) won an international design competition to create the Water Cube. Over the intervening period, a range of Arup disciplines contributed to the project’s ultimate success at the Games. The swimming pool performed as one of the fastest yet produced, with excellent line of sight for spectators, and the diving venue was acknowledged as being second to none.

Arup’s contribution to the project was extensive. The Sydney-based Arup engineering team led the way, integrating more than 100 engineers and specialists spread across 20 disciplines and four countries.

The project was fast-tracked, with delivery of the design, from competition stage through to a fully approved scheme, taking just 12 weeks. The aggressive program continued through to the official opening of the Water Cube in January this year.

According to fire engineer Dr Marianne Foley, “Timing was an enormous challenge but Arup’s one stop shop (multidisciplinary) approach enabled us to cover all of the engineering and specialist design roles throughout both the concept and scheme design stages.”

“The end date was obviously non-negotiable, yet all of us faced unanticipated issues arising from the unique nature of the project. We had to find solutions to multiple unprecedented challenges without taking any additional time.”

Dr Foley was in the thick of all this, as she was dealing with the unconventional ETFE cladding while developing an overall fire plan that convinced the local authorities to accept a fire design outside Beijing’s conventional building code.

Design leader Tristram Carfrae says there is widespread acceptance that the Water Cube marks a new beginning in design thinking, by challenging established ideas of what a structure should or could be. This new thinking, he says, is the consequence of asking the question, “How does structure fill space?”

“Traditionally, structure is all to do with forms and services, such as beams, slabs and columns. In big roofs, structural engineers have explored the idea of manipulating the shape to enhance the structure, such as arches and domes. Sometimes we have experimented with separating the structure from the shape of the thing it supports. For example, the cable net supporting the roof of the stadium is not the same shape as the roof itself.”

“Previously, structure was viewed as a surface. But in nature, structures that fill space are a regular occurrence, such as the crystals that combine to form rocks. This idea informed the design of the structure that is the Water Cube.”

Later in the project, the team had to seamlessly hand over the design to their Chinese design partners for detailing, while ensuring that technical approvals were secured and that the innovative design was understood, accepted and constructed safely.

According to project manager Rob Leslie-Carter, “The Water Cube also became a bridge for cultural exchanges. Through it we deepened the understanding, trust and friendship among the project team members and stakeholders from both Australia and China.”

“This was only achievable by establishing and maintaining absolute clarity of the design vision, communicating that vision to project stakeholders with differing cultural expectations, and the outstanding collaboration between Arup, PTW Architects and CCDI.”

In the short time since its opening, the Water Cube has become an icon of a ‘new Beijing’. The venue amazed visitors and inspired athletes at the 2008 Olympic Games, and has left a lasting legacy for Arup, the project stakeholders and the people of Beijing and China – a world-class, sustainable aquatics centre made from a box of bubbles.

To date, the Water Cube has won: