Dual-purpose venue 'Ice Cube' showcases low-carbon achievements of Chinese company

The design concept of world's only dual-purpose Olympics venue, the National Aquatics Center, or Ice Cube (Water Cube), is showcased at the 2022 China International Fair for Trade in Services, or CIFTIS, from Sept 1 to 5, brought by the China Construction First Group Construction and Development Co Ltd.

With a theme focusing on low-carbon and intelligent construction, the company displays its sustainable solutions to the world by providing audiences opportunities to witness the reversible transformation through interactive sand table.

"Our 'Ice Cube' project team has made the reversible transformation a possibility after more than one year's experiments with 485 design papers," said Liu Weiwei, general manager of technical center of the company, to China Daily Website during an exclusive interview on Friday.

As curling and wheelchair curling venue of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the "Ice Cube" is also the world's only dual-Olympics venue that can hold both water and ice events.

"The project team also uses intelligent systems to monitor the heat, humidity and light environment changes of the hall, making sure the ice used for competition does not melt, and the temperature in the stadium is suitable for the audiences," Liu said, adding that the sensing devices are set up at different spots, which can feed back to the "nerve center" in time.

"With these designing concepts and technologies, we could have fewer newly-built architectures in the future and more updated and transformed ones like the 'Ice Cube' to meet differentiated needs and reach low-carbon goals," he added.