Quzhou Stadium – stadium description

How did the construction of a new sports complex in Quzhou happen?

Work on the construction of a futuristic sports complex, destined to become the new landmark of Quzhou, a city 400 km south-west of Shanghai, began in 2018. The main facility of the compound was to be a multi-purpose stadium with an auditorium for 30,000 spectators. MAD Architects was responsible for the design and Shanghai Baoye was the main contractor.

More than 610,000 m² of land with a roughly rectangular outline was allocated for the construction of Quzhou Sports Park complex. The plot was designated in a previously undeveloped area in the north-west of the city.

What does Quzhou Sports Park complex include?

The ambition of the designers was to create an architecturally coherent complex, encompassing many different facilities. In addition to the main stadium, the complex included a training stadium with a running track, an indoor arena for 10,000 spectators, an indoor swimming pool with an auditorium for 2,000 people, a training hall, a hotel, a youth centre, a technology museum and commercial facilities.

A distinctive feature of the complex is the unusual landscaping of the site. The space has been designed to evoke the terrain around Quzhou, with its numerous hills and slopes, although it may also evoke the extraterrestrial landscape familiar from science fiction. The result is an extraordinary piece of civil engineering that rises above conventional sports architecture.

The sports halls and indoor swimming pool are to be seen from the outside as high hills. The entire area has been largely greened with lawn and criss-crossed by numerous walking and cycling paths, and a lake has also been included in the central area. From the outside, the main stadium can be seen as a volcanic crater. The irregular slopes surrounding the arena structure blur the boundary between the building and the encircled scenery.

Much of the usable areas and car parks have been hidden beneath the surface, and the entire complex is described as the largest earth-covered structure in the world. The covering includes sizable openings, allowing sunlight into the underground floors.

What are the characteristics of Quzhou Stadium?

The main stadium of the compound is equipped with an athletics track, which is surrounded on all sides by stands capable of holding 30 000 spectators. The pitch is located on a north-south axis and the stands are separated from the running track by a ditch. The main stand (the highest, with VIP boxes) is located on the west side. Outside the eastern section, the auditorium has an upper tier, and a narrow middle level strip has also been created between the tiers in the western section.

The stands are equipped with plastic seating, in various shades of green and white. A LED screen was placed on the south arch. The auditorium was fully covered by a canopy, formed by a steel truss structure supported by nine pillars. Large arches were created between the pillars to create an open space between the peak of the stadium and the roof.

The roof sheathing is made of a white PTFE membrane. The membrane has micro-perforations on the underside to help with the acoustics of the facility. The top layer was created from a reinforced material that is resistant to rain and other weather conditions. Under the canopy, floodlights were placed, except for the lowest, eastern part, where two masts were erected instead.

The stand structure is based on 60 columnar reinforced concrete segments. In the spaces inside the stadium, bare concrete is omnipresent. The concrete used to build the stadium was produced locally, and the facility is also equipped with rainwater management systems, which is important from an environmental and economic point of view.

When was Quzhou Stadium opened?

The main stadium (together with the auxiliary stadium) was commissioned as the first component of the complex. The opening ceremony took place on October 22, 2021, and the inaugural event at the stadium was the opening ceremony of the fourth edition of the multi-discipline competition to determine the best athletes of Zhejiang Province.