Water Cube

One of the highlights of the Chinese Olympics was architectural. The "water cube" is basically built with an exo-skeleton that looks like honeycombs or molecular shapes. A bit question was what to put inside the exo-skeleton. Quickly ruled out was glass, which was simply too heavy.

The answer was ETFE, a plastic using technology based on teflon. This plastic is very thin, as thin as plastic that you might put photos in. Yet, it is also strong. There were two big fears: fire and earthquake. Turns out ETFE doesn't burn, it melts. You can put a blowtorch to it, and it begins to drip. Remove the blowtorch, and it stops melting. Thus, you wouldn't see the structure catch fire.

The other fear was earthquake, and they had to show that the structure could withstand that.

The Chinese looked to an Australian firm to help design the structure, while they built it.

The Chinese not only wanted to showcase their athletes but the architectural marvels. To be fair, they did it at a hefty price, but price seemed no object.

Still an interesting idea.