ZHA to style up Hangzhou sports center

Article posted by Coliseum, November 3^rd, 2022

Image: ZHA and BrickVisual

The British architecture and design firm Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) (UK) has won the competition to design the new Hangzhou International Sports Centre (China).

‘Zaha Hadid Architects on LinkedIn’ stated that incorporating a 60,000-seat football stadium and practice pitches, the center also includes a 19,000-seat indoor arena as well as an aquatics center with two 50-meter pools. The center establishes a new riverfront park and public plazas with direct access to Lines 3 and 5 of the City’s expanding Metro network.

The Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) is a British architecture and design firm founded by Zaha Hadid (eminent Iraqi-British architect), with its main office situated in Clerkenwell, London (UK).

Accommodating Hangzhou’s growing population, the International Sports Centre’s design provides a variety of facilities for grassroots players to professional athletes.

‘Zaha Hadid Architects on LinkedIn’ further stated that the stadium, the indoor arena and the aquatics center are connected by the center’s layered podium that weaves through the site. Informed by the terracing of the tea farms on Hangzhou’s surrounding hillsides, the striated 45,000 sq.m podium houses the sports center’s ancillary facilities that are shared between the venues.

The stadium’s façade is open to the exterior with louvres sheltering terraces that host a variety of food and beverage outlets offering views across the City.

Designed to FIFA standards, the stadium’s seating bowl is configured to bring spectators as close as possible to the field of play and ensure excellent, unrestricted views from every seat, creating an intense matchday atmosphere for players on the pitch and fans seated throughout the stadium. These programatic requirements define geometries that are expressed as undulations within the louvred façade which gives the stadium a stratified, geological appearance of solidity when viewed from nearby. When viewed from a distance, the louvred façade becomes transparent.

Located within the warm temperate climate of Hangzhou, the International Sports Centre has been designed to the highest 3-Star rating of China’s Green Building Program with each venue providing optimal conditions using natural hybrid ventilation most of the year. The annual solar irradiation analysis has determined the composition of the façade’s external louvres while photovoltaics will harvest solar power for all venues. Ground heat exchange and recovery systems will ensure the most efficient operations of all facilities.

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