Thriving Sports Open Market for International Architecture in China |
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International architects have become beneficiaries from China's thriving sports, as the growing demand for new facilities promises a big market for them. Several foreign architects were such beneficiaries, who won the design bidding for some major venues of China's 9th National Games, scheduled to open Sunday in Guangzhou.
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International architects have become beneficiaries from China's thriving sports, as the growing demand for new facilities promises a big market for them. Several foreign architects were such beneficiaries, who won the design bidding for some major venues of China's 9th National Games, scheduled to open Sunday in Guangzhou.
According to Tian Xinde, vice secretary-general of the current National Games' Organizing Committee, the 9th National Games has set a precedent in the history of this quadrennial event by inviting international bidding for desining three major venues for the games.
All the three biddings were won by international architecture designers, including the one for the main venue, Guangdong Olympic Stadium, where the opening ceremony of the 9th National Games is to take place.
"Eight firms were involved in the design bidding for the Olympic Stadium in 1998, and five them were overseas firms," Tian said.
The Kansas City-based Ellerbe Becket, a world renowned architectural and engineering firm, joined in project architect Nixon & Nixon to win the bid. "Instead of conventional oval-shaped designs, they produced an original pattern featuring a flowing ribbon like roof that waves above the stands and parts in halves in the middle," said Yang Shuyong, senior engineer and vice president of the Architectural Design and Research Institute of South China University of Technology. "Most of the judges were impressed by the novel design immediately."
Now the 1.2-billion-yuan (US$140 million) complex is standing in the eastern part of Guangzhou, capital of South China's Guangdong Province. Covering a floor space of 145,000 square meters, it has a copacity of 80,012 seats and is composed of a 260m by 200m stadium with standard track lanes, a soccer field, an arena and a number of practice gymnasiums. The roof, supported by 21 pairs of huge pillars, is about 32,000 square meters in size and weighs 9, 500 tons in total.
Yang, who headed a team to collaborate with the American architects in perfecting and materializing the design of the stadium, said now that the stadium is built, the design has become even more popular.
However, he said, he likes the design of Guangzhou Gymnasium even better, which was produced by French architect Paul Andreu, who has also won the bidding for designing the National Theater in Beijing. "I was struck by Andreu's design conception that the architecture should be in harmony with its surrounding environment rathern than trying to stand out by size," Yang said.
The gymnsium complex is situated at the foot of the Baiyun Hill that towers in the north of Guangzhou and overlooks the city.
Instead of competing with the senic nature preserve for people's attraction, the gymnasium complex is made of three oval-shaped structures that well resemble petals of a bombax flower, the city's floral emblem.
"We wanted the hill to remain the key element of this project, so we housed the different facilities in three buildings, similar in shape but of different sizes, that relate in an organic way to echo the curves of the hill," Paul Andreu so explained about his design.
Yang said Andreu's modest design of Guangzhou Gymnasium is a "striking contrast to some of Chinese architects who blindly seek to cast off so-called 'landmark' buildings."
Both Yang and Tian described international bidding for designing the major venues of the National Games as successful and necessary. "The process of bidding strictly followed the interantional practice," Yang said, adding that "through international bidding we could bring in fresh ideas and advanced techniques from international architects. This will undoubtedly promote China's architecture design."
Tian Xinde believed that international bidding will be introduced to other contruction projects of sports venues in future. Now that Beijing is to host the Olympic Games in 2008, and the demand for sporting facilities is growing in China, he observed, China is certain to offer more opportunities for international architects.
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