Water Cube two years after the Beijing Olympics

Most pompous events like the Olympic Games or world fairs struggle with the question of what purpose they will serve after their brief existence. Many pavilions are dismantled, some completely change their function, and only a few buildings can serve their original purpose without modifications. The Beijing Olympic complex, which hosted the sporting events with the highest number of records, also had to tackle these questions.
The National Stadium in Beijing, nicknamed the 'Bird's Nest' due to its intertwined steel structure, is supposed to become a 'Love Nest,' where mass weddings, so popular in Asia, will take place, as suggested by Jacques Herzog, one of the trio of authors, which he surely meant with the same dose of exaggeration as when he described the components of the perfume designed by his Basel office.
Alongside the 'Bird's Nest,' another symbol of the Beijing Summer Olympics became the National Aquatics Center, which earned the nickname “Water Cube” (Water Cube / [H2O]³). The original design comes from Chris Bosse of PTW Architects, who was assisted by engineers from the Australian branch of Arup with its unique structure.
At the end of this July, after a ten-month redevelopment costing 200 million yuan (570 million CZK), thousands of entertainment-seeking Chinese flocked to the pool where Michael Phelps won eight gold medals and twenty world records were set, allowing them to afford the entrance fee of 200 yuan (600 CZK), which is a fifth of the local average wage.
The author of the redevelopment of the Olympic pools is the Canadian design studio Forrec. Beijing can now boast another record: the entertainment center covering 13,000 m² is called Happy Magic Water Park and is the largest in all of Asia.