Wang Xiaojie: Opposite to the masculine bird's nest is the gentle and beautiful water cube next to it. We still can't see its femininity, because it hasn't been affixed with this special membrane structure. In another month or so, the Water Cube will begin to install the film made of this special material100000 square meters. How to make this light and thin material control indoor acousto-optic heat well has become the biggest problem for scientific and technological personnel.

The Water Cube is a translucent building. One of its designs is to adjust the light and temperature in the museum by absorbing natural light through the thin film structure, so as to achieve the purpose of energy saving and environmental protection. However, it is a problem how to prevent it from becoming a greenhouse only by relying on bare film, not to mention adjusting the light temperature. These circular spots on the film, called electroplating spots, are the key to solve the problem. They are like handfuls of small umbrellas, which isolate and reflect light and keep dazzling light and excess heat out of the venue.

Mao Hongwei, Minister of Mechanical and Electrical Department of China Construction National Swimming Center Design Consortium: For example, in the north, the sunshine load is very small, so under this premise, our (electroplating point) density is relatively sparse, giving people a transparent feeling. In the west and east, due to the strong incident sunlight, we will plate dense spots there.

If you want to keep the water cube cool in the hot sun or at sunset, the distribution of these small umbrellas must be very accurate. By studying the climate data of Beijing in recent 30 years and through accurate calculation, the required electroplating spot area of each film is finally determined.

Founder, the engineering designer of "Water Cube": the electroplating point (area) of the main part of the south facade is below 50%. The main electroplating point (area) of the west facade is about 60%. With such a plating point, the entire west facade can block more than 70% of solar energy from entering the building.

The most touching visual effect of the Water Cube is that you can see the closely connected translucent bubbles from any angle inside and outside the venue, but you can't see an extra steel beam. So, how do blisters and steel beams blend together? This light blue square box actually hides a secret about the foam in nature.

Wang Xiaojie: I think of a very vivid way to show you what the Water Cube really looks like. Let's play a game of blowing soap bubbles first. Everyone played this game when they were children. Well, you see, is it similar? In fact, the outer wall and ceiling of the water cube are made up of thousands of such bubbles. As early as 100 years ago in Europe, Rod colvin, a scientist who loves to play with bubbles, put forward this "bubble theory". He said that in fact, the arrangement structure of many substances in nature is composed of this bubble structure. But this theory has been put forward for more than a hundred years, but no one has ever thought about how to apply it to architecture.

Reporter: "How did you feel when you first saw the Water Cube?"

Sun Yanchao, deputy general manager of the National Aquatics Center and head of the steel structure, said: "This is very novel and dreamy. But/kloc-more than 0/00 design drawings just tell us what this building is, but they don't tell us how to build it. The whole component of the water cube is 20000 rods, 10000 balls, and a * * * adds up to 30000 components, forming such a structural system. Every node, every section is different. In the end, we realized more than 30,000 drawings. "

Reporter: "How long did it take us to draw these more than 30,000 pictures?"

Sun Yanchao: "It took about a year. Looking back on what I did this year, I don't remember anything except painting. "

To pile bubbles into a wall, the key is to find the exact position of the steel beam as the edge of the bubbles. Engineers have tried many methods, including GPS positioning, laser positioning, overall translation and regional installation, but the progress of the project is always too slow.

Kang Wei, general manager of the National Swimming Center: "We calculated that if more than 30 parts can be welded every day, when can we finish the task?" We may not be able to finish welding after 2008, so we are very anxious. "

Hou Bencai, executive manager of water cube project general contractor, guides the construction team to construct according to the drawings every day, and the slow construction progress makes him fidgety. He began to ponder the truth of blowing bubbles with several old masters. One day, Lao Hou excitedly found Sun Yanchao with a match. Can these matches solve the problem of locating the bubble structure?

Reporter: "What do these matchsticks represent?"

Hou Bencai, executive manager of Water Cube Project, said: "These matchsticks represent the edge of this bubble. If you put these rods together into a ball in the air, you can see that it is very difficult to locate them in space. If it is not good, it will be scattered, and all previous efforts will be in vain. After a period of exploration, the master thought of a good way to determine the plane by points and rods. Then the positions of other members can be basically and accurately determined by visual inspection. The thinking has been adjusted. Don't think about making a ball yet. If one face of the ball is made first, the other faces will be made quickly in the same way, so that a sphere will naturally form. "

Sun Yanchao, deputy general manager of the National Swimming Center and head of the steel structure, said: "In fact, the reason is very simple, that is, a line and a point outside the line in high school geometry are used to determine a plane. The indigenous method of the worker's master solved the big problem. "

The problems that plagued a group of engineers were solved, and the project progress soared to more than 100 components a day, and the water cube project was capped more than a month ahead of schedule. This set of working methods created by master workers, together with the engineer's architectural theory, has been written into the Technical Specification for Construction Management of Polyhedral Ductile Steel Frame Structures, for which China has completely independent intellectual property rights.

Dong Shilin, an academician of China Academy of Engineering, said: "The (water cube) structure is now called polyhedral space steel frame structure. In the past, this structure not only existed in China, but also in the world. This structure, the world's first water cube swimming pool, was realized in China.