Yangzhou Southern Sports Park / PT Architecture Design

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BackgroumdToday China is facing both challenges and opportunities brought by rapid urbanization. After the great celebrations of constructing national symbolic sports buildings in 2008, the focus of China's sports facilities start to shift back to the community -- to create space for the general public rather than structure of national image. These new urban projects are no longer just the icing on the cake decorations for huge residential or commercial precincts, but become the catalysts for the new urban community life.

STRATEGIESHow to create an attractive public space and encourage social communication? What is the new image should be in such a context? How to define a new sports architecture that could response to new life style? Our strategigone.

Concentration - master plan strategyThe site is in triangular shape and surrounded by roads in all sides, which provides good accessibility. The site is adjacent to the green buffer zone of the old town. The master plan assemble the massing to the south end, maximizing the external outdoor space of the site, allowing future connections of the park to the green zone, and providing a simple and strong image to the city.

Connection - landscape strategyThe “sports forest” on the north side is the main outdoor space. As a transition between the main building and the north side park, the space formed by jogging tracks connects the entire space. The track connect the park with the building,connect the indoor with the outdoor. From the indoor runway, we can enjoy indoor sports activities, atrium performances, along the steps to the outdoors, we can enjoy the green scenery and fresh air.

Encirclement - architecture strategyThe auxiliary functions, such as mechanical service space and fire-egress facilities, are arranged around the building to create a more flexible interior space for multi-functional activities. This prototype can be traced back to the theory proposed by Louis I. Kahn about the separation of serviced and servant space. As a space-functional model,this could be referred to the Pompidou Centre, designed by Piano and Rogers.

Filtering - cultural strategy strategyTraditional handicraft paper-cutting is a famous ornamental language in Yangzhou. The abstraction of this feature is combined with computer parametric technique to achieve the integration of traditional culture and modern technology on the building facade.

Folding - rhetoric strategyKahn’s ideology about served and servant space are further developed in the scheme. The appearance of servant space is no longer presented as secondary or auxiliary way, but become the key character of the facade. The articulations of contemporary folding geometry refers to the Zigzag colonnade of Chinese garden in Yangzhou. By this way, primary and auxiliary functions, indoor and outdoor activities, architectural forms and the cultural connotations are integrated to one entity.

Dark gray aluminum panels were chosen as main external material to fully demonstrate the expression of a contemporary sports architecture: an energetic sports block.

Integration - function strategyCompared with architecture for competitive sports, the architecture for mass sports is a relatively new type of architecture in China. It puts forward new demands for the definition, understanding and spatial allocation of sports functions. We propose the concept of leisure sports, which is characterized by free open space, interactive space and compound space. The main functions such as multifunction hall, pool ,badminton, basketball halls are arranged around the public atrium to encourage the visual and behavioral communication and interaction as much as possible, and fully reflect the behavioral characteristics of mass sports. The atrium is more than a circulation space but also a multifunction space for community activities such as small performances,  a rock climbing or roller skating etc.

Towards a sustainable design

1. Sustainable urban design: The sport park acts as the catalyst of the new town.While the historical old town was preserved and surrounded by green belt.

2. Sustainable Social activities : The design shift the focus from elite professional sports building to community oriented sports space, encouraging social interaction by providing multifunctional large span structure.

3. Cultural sustainability: the development of architectural profession always comes together with the new possibilities for an architectural prototypes. The design thinking about the idea of served and servant space has been inherited and rethink in this project. Art, cultural reference and functions are integrated wiht the external envelope.

4. Economical sustainability: operationally, government subsidies are replaced by marketing orientated operator.

5. Aesthetic Expression: for facades, the concept of modern aesthetics is applied to express the image of traditional paper-cut aesthetic

6. Sustainable environment design: the design incorporated photovoltaic panels ,grey water system as well as passive ventilation system to minimize energy consumption.