english 1

1. Water cube
 The dimensions – 70000m2/ 753474 sq ft
 Function of water cube - as sport hall where the 2008 summer Olympics swimming, diving and
synchronized swimming competition was held
 Material of water cube – build with a steel frame and clad in a type of plastic called ethylene
tetrafluoroethylene(ETFE)
 The facilities of water cube – two water pools and 6000 permanent seats with a further 1100
able to be added for major sport ing event
 The design of water cube – the exterior design mostly using the design of circle , mostly like
bubbles to emphasized the function of water cube.
 Why using this design – the façade configuration is based on organic cellular compositions
whose shape evokes the superimposition of soap bubbles. This blanket of geometrical pi llows
was built with an ETFE cladding that allows more light and hear penetration than traditional
glass
Leonardo Glass Cube
 The dimensions – 1200m2/ 12917 sq ft
 The first permanent building designed by the firm 3deluxe.
 Serve as a corporate symbol of the Leonardo glass distribution firm.
 Function of the glass cube – multifunctional
 Material of glass cube – using the glass façade to create the organic looking fluting which
extends towards the glass that surrounds the building.
 The facilities of glass cube - contains showroom, meeting room, work areas and other service
zone.
 The design of glass cube - By the name of Glass cube , we knew that mostly using the glass to
cover the building , the transparency of frontage permits a panoramic view of the exterior
landscape that surrounding the building with the organic white walls
 Why using the glass exterior design? - The original organic shapes arranged on the façade
exterior enable a spectacular play of light and shadows to be created inside , emphasized by
the white walls and pillars. Even interior design , the glass cube is using circle forms to
emphasized the creative of shapes . The mostly shape used were circle even the walls , floor or
stage were circle styles

2. Shapes can be explained and viewed in many ways, it can be easy or hard . Some people can
explain it by the volume, the angle or the combination of shapes but some can only explain
shapes in term of rectangles and circles. I like shapes because it can build as simple as four walls
or as difficult as beyond our mind. In this full of creativity and amazing world , i found two
interesting buildings which are the “Leonardo Glass Cube” designed by the 3Deluxe in Bad
Driburg, Germany and the “Water Cube” designed by a consortium made up of PTW architect in
Beijing China. Both of them were completed in 2008. As seen from the name of “Cube”,those
two buildings seem like easy to construct but it’s not. Leonardo Glass Cube and Water Cube
different in terms of functions, materials and design.
Those two building share the same concept but have different functions.The Glass Cube is
designed for pavilion and is dimensions only 12917 sq ft compared to the Water Cube which is
753474 sq ft but the Water Cube at first was designed as sport hall where the 2008 Summer
Olympics was held. The Glass Cube had served as a corporate symbol of the Leonardo glass
distribution and the result is an open floor plan and multifunctional spaces while the Water
Cube became a corporate symbol of Chinese culture and its relationship to the Bird's Nest
stadium.The facilities of Glass Cube consist of showroom, meeting room, work areas and other
service zone while the Water Cube just contain two water pools and 6000 permanent seats but
the Water Cube has undergone about 200 million Yuan revamp to turn half of its interior into a
water park after 2008.
To emphasize the name of Glass Cube and Water Cube , the architects used some special
materials to design them. The Glass cube is a futuristic building which is the new headquarters

3. of the German manufacturer of glass Glaskoch. Glass Cube was constructed by the glass facade
which is a new facade technology to pursue the transparency in the building facade. By using
the glass facade,its create the organics looking fluting which extends towards the glass that
surrounds the building. The Glass Cube features six metre high frame-less glass panels, fitted
with disc springs to reduce stress from wind pressure. On the other hands, the Water Cube is
the largest ETFE clad structure in the world comprises of a steel space frame and its over
100,000 m² of ETFE pillows that are only 0.2 mm (1/125 of an inch) in total thickness.
(arup.com(2006). “Best of What’s New 2006 - Engineering”. Popular Science 269(6): 84-85.) The
ETFE cladding grants more penetration of light and heat when compared to traditional glass,
which consequently reduces 30% of the energy consumed.
Design is like tone of a building and it helps an architect to explain what he wants to tell.The
main feature of the Glass Cube is the magnificent transparent frontage which permits a
panoramic view of the exterior landscape that surrounds the building with the organic white
walls. The original organic shapes arranged on the facade exterior enable a spectacular play of
light and shadows to be created inside, emphasized by the white walls and pillars. The interior
design of glass cube is mostly about the shape of a circle even the pillars have also been
designed into curve shape and the stairs is rotating with semicircle shapes. The architects
designed the water cube into a cuboid because it was similar to the Chinese words which are
often referred to as cube words. The water cube was built with the same idea which is circle by
that represents the bubbles which symbolize water.The facade configuration is based on
organics cellular compositions whose shape evokes the superimposition of soap bubbles. This
blanket of geometrical pillows was built with an ETFE cladding that allows more light and heat

4. penetration than traditional glass. The outer wall design is based on the Weaire–Phelan
structure, a structure devised from the natural pattern of bubbles in soap lather. (Beijing
venues – National Aquatics Center, on BBC Sports.)The Water Cube's exterior cladding is made
up of 4,000 ETFE bubbles. Although called as Water Cube, the aquatic center is actually a
rectangular box (cuboid) ( Pearson, Clifford (July 2008). "Projects: National Swimming Center".
Architectural Record (McGraw Hill) 196 (7). Archived from the original on August 13, 2008.
Retrieved August 16, 2008.)
Although the glass cube is smaller, but the way of design in shape is so amazing. I fell in love
on first sight when I saw the design of Leonardo Glass Cube. The creativity of the 3Deluxe
architects are mesmerizing , the design is so lively, so simple but full of meanings. I hope one
day i can visit the Leonardo Glass Cube as soon as possible.

5.  Architizer, (2007). Leonardo Glass Cube.http://architizer.com/projects/leonardo-glass-cube/
 English.people.com.cn, (2014). Cube becomes park for Olympic stadium revival - People's
Daily Online.http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90782/92900/6887960.html
 Pilkington.com, (2014). Pilkington - First in Glass. http://www.pilkington.com/en-gb/
uk/products/product-categories/glass
 systemshttp://arch.usc.edu/sites/default/files/mbs/papers/michael_robert_patterson_(20
08)_structural_glass_facades.pdf
 Rosskopf-partner.com, (2014). Rosskopf + Partner: Leonardo Glass Cube.
http://www.rosskopf-partner.com/references/leonardo-glass-cube/