National Aquatics Centre

Location: Beijing, China

Also known as the 'water cube', the National Aquatics Centre sits comfortably next to Beijing National Stadium in the capital's Olympic Green. It was specifically designed and built for the swimming competitions during the 2008 Olympics; after the Olympics, the centre was renovated into a water park and re-opened in 2010. The centre's appearance is similar to that of bubbles in soapy water, making it one of the most unique stadiums on our list. 

Despite its name, this 'water cube' is not actually a cube - it's a rectangle. It was designed and built by PTW Architects, CSCEC, CCDI and Arup architects after being picked from a list of ten different finalists in an architectural competition. The 'water cube' has a steel exterior frame and contains the largest ETFE-clad structure in the world - with over 100,000 meters squared of ETFE pillows. During the Games the building had a seating capacity of around 17,000, which was later reduced to 7,000 when renovations took place. 

Images provided by National Aquatics Centre