Overseas project of the year 2008

water cube

Water Cube (Beijing), Arup

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, hosting the swimming, diving and water polo events.

Twenty-five world records were set in what is now the fastest pool in world, Great Britain’s Rebecca Adlington became a double Olympic Champion, and Michael Phelps set a new Olympic landmark with eight gold medals.

The design was delivered from competition stage through to a fully approved scheme in just 12 weeks. The fast-track programme continued through to the official opening of the Water Cube in January this year - on time, and on budget.

The scale of the project was neatly summed up by Joanna Kennedy, Arup, who described it as a “major collaboration” involving 20 different disciplines over four different countries.
She said: “It was very exciting in terms of multi disciplined co-ordination. The design team was based in Australia with the project delivered in China so obviously there were challenges there. This is recognition of our global project management team and I am accepting this on behalf of the Australian practice because they were leading it.”

Runners-up:

AMA International University (Bahrain), Davis Langdon
North Sitra Water Treatment Plant (Bahrain), MWH