Written by Su Shiwei
Seeing that the footsteps of the Winter Olympic Games are getting closer and closer, the snowmaking and ice-making work of various event venues has been fully launched. On January 9, the Beijing Winter Olympics ice hockey venue National Stadium officially began ice production, is expected to be completed on January 18, the largest indoor sports stadium in Asia, which once created a brilliant 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games, will shine again on the Winter Olympic calendar stage.
The gold medal blessed land coexists with low profile and strength, and the gorgeous transformation has been upgraded again
The National Stadium was one of the three main venues of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, hosting gymnastics, trampolines and handball. Although it is slightly less famous than the Bird's Nest (National Stadium) and the Water Cube (National Aquatics Center), it was the venue where Chinese athletes won the most gold medals during that Olympic Games, winning a total of 11 "gold and jade" (9 in gymnastics, 2 trampolines).
After being listed as one of the seven renovation venues for the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, the National Stadium started renovation works in 2018 and was completed in December 2020. During the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, it will host men's ice hockey and some women's ice hockey events.
After the renovation, the National Stadium achieved the level of two stars in green buildings, which is the highest building energy efficiency rating for the renovation venues. In addition to the renovation of the main hall and the addition of related functions, the reconstruction project also built a new ice hockey training hall on the north side, with a total area of about 98,000 square meters.
In order to provide athletes with a comfortable and convenient race experience, 14 team locker rooms have been added to the venue, each equipped with an independent knife grinding room, storage room, massage room, coaching room, in addition to the toilet and shower room to achieve wet and dry separation, fully considering the training, competition needs, and strive to create the most comfortable competition conditions for athletes. In addition, in the construction of the full implementation of the "athlete-centric" concept, the overall planning of the athlete flow, the locker room is set between the competition venue and the training hall to minimize the athlete walking distance, in all the world-class ice hockey venues, is the shortest athlete flow of the venue.
In terms of viewing experience, in order to serve to ensure the visual viewing experience of the audience. The new curved bucket screen system can bring the best viewing vision to the audience, and is currently the largest indoor curved bucket screen in Asia. Comprehensively considering the current structural bearing situation of the venue, taking into account the needs of the Winter Olympics and the needs of roofing hanging loads for large-scale activities after the games. The current four-sided main screen scheme of the mainstream of the ice hockey rink is composed of four main screens and four inner screens on the inside, and the four main screens are designed with curved surfaces, which greatly enhances the visual experience of the audience in all directions. ”
The ice surface meets the highest international standards and can be used multi-functionally after the game
As the world's top event, the Winter Olympics ice hockey game for the venue requirements are very strict, of which the requirements for flatness and hardness are very precise, in order to ensure the quality of the ice surface, the flatness of the lower ice layer should be ensured within ±5mm.
In order to achieve this requirement, the national stadium ice-making project from design to construction can be described as painstaking, as early as the time of the renovation of the venue, the responsible team used the Swiss laser paver, while cooperating with laser ranging and other monitoring equipment, the entire ice surface contains moisture-proof, thermal insulation, waterproof, heating, refrigeration and other 11 layers of structure, close to 1800 square meters of super large ice structure layer by layer verification, at any time to correct, do not allow deviations of the upper and lower half centimeters, laying a solid foundation for high-quality ice surface.
In addition, in the ice making process, the efficient use of resources is also the core, and the concept of energy conservation, environmental protection and green Olympics has been fully practiced. The two ice rinks of the National Stadium use ice-making technology and environmentally friendly refrigerants with zero carbon emissions, and are equipped with low-temperature ethylene glycol screw ice-making units, and the effluent temperature of the ice-making main engine is -20 °C to ensure that the ice surface temperature can be adjusted arbitrarily from -5 °C to -7 °C. The system can convert the heat generated during the ice making process into the heating required for the heating of the anti-condensation layer of the ice rink, the melting of the ice pool, the cleaning of the ice pouring truck, etc., further saving energy and making the entire ice making system more environmentally friendly.
It is reported that the two ice rinks of the National Stadium have a variety of size mode conversion functions, realizing the two-way conversion ability of winter and summer sports, which can not only meet the needs of the Winter Olympics and NHL events, but also provide comprehensive services for public ice activities, figure skating, daily training and various events after the game.
Landscape design integrates ice and snow, ink painting and spring festival
In addition to the transformation and upgrading of the competition venue, in order to cater to the atmosphere of the event, the layout of the image landscape of the National Stadium has also added many highlights.
According to the person in charge of the venue, they designed different image landscapes according to the needs of the three architectural venues of the main hall, the auxiliary hall and the training hall: the hue in the training hall is dominated by blue and blue and white gradients; the main hall is based on ice blue and blue and white gradients plus bamboo green, showing a hierarchical change. In the overall image, the green mountains and green water, the traditional Chinese ink painting effect, but also includes the Great Wall culture and other content. At the same time, since the competition coincided with the Spring Festival, a traditional Chinese festival, the image landscape of the venue also combined with festive elements and atmosphere, and better integrated with the overall culture of the Olympic games.
In addition to the different landscape designs of the three architectural venues, the National Stadium has also created a punching point for spectators that integrates different Elements of the Winter Olympics, and the "oversized version" of the ice pier will be displayed on the glass screen of the exterior wall of the National Stadium, which is one of the highlights of the National Stadium. Combining the core graphics of the Winter Olympics with the imprint of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics, it is well combined, coupled with the ice pier with an overall height of 14 meters, it is expected to become an ideal punching point for spectators in the entire central area square area, and also to promote the ice hockey sport in the National Gymnasium.