MAD Architects, led by Ma Yansong, is building a vanishing stadium as part of its larger “Quzhou Sports Campus” project. Located in Quzhou, in China’s Zhejiang province, the park covers an area of 570,000 square meters, of which the total building area of the stadium complex and supporting facilities is 390,000 square meters. The park includes a 30,000-person capacity stadium, a 10,000-person capacity gymnasium, a natatorium, outdoor auxiliary training grounds, athlete service and experience center, as well as a science and technology museum and children’s place.
The project’s overall design has been finalized and is now under construction, with the first phase, the stadium, to be completed in 2021. Upon its entire completion, “Quzhou Sports Campus” will become the world’s largest earth shelter building complex. The site of the project has natural slopes and lush vegetation. MAD’s scheme for the sports park takes into consideration the plot’s existing characteristics by respecting them to the fullest, regarding the culture of the city, the relationship between its buildings, and the relationship between the buildings and the city boundaries.
Image © MAD
The buildings are embedded into the ground, whereby the façade disappears into the terrain, covered by greenery so that it becomes the landscape itself. While contours engrave curves into the surface, some function as pedestrian walkways. Thus, the sloping façade naturally serves as a new place for citizens to engage in exercise, and offers the opportunity to ‘climb’ the architecture. The lawn also provides a place where people can relax after their sports, introducing a new public green space in the city.
Envisioned as an earth landscape, the three dimensionality of the design is scattered and softly layered. Throughout the campus, there are multiple platforms integrated for people to enjoy the park’s beauty from different perspectives. At the same time, the skylights of the various athletic facilities not only introduce natural light into the interior spaces of the buildings, but also serve to function as alternative lookout points for citizens once they have traversed the buildings to their peak, breaking the boundaries between indoor and outdoor.
Image © MAD
30,000-seat Stadium
The enormity of the 30,000-seat capacity stadium is hidden. The volume of the grandstand structure recedes into the landscape so that its function disappears. Hovering above is a rain cover, that with outstanding visual effect, which becomes an installation, such as clouds appear light and floating above the grandstand, that forms a reflection of the neighboring lake. For citizens jogging or walking the grounds, it creates a perfect transcendental harmony with its surroundings.
A Mountainous 10,000-seat Gymnasium
The internal dome of the gymnasium hides the design details inside the structure. The smooth roof encompasses a concrete shell that spans 130 meters. The sports lighting is integrated and embedded into the ceiling structure, ensuring simple but complete expression of the building’s structural beauty and performance. In addition, the rigorous design of the gymnasium has taken on special considerations in regards to its acoustics.
Gymnasium 
Gymnasium
Swimming Pool
The design of the natatorium sees each key function of the space conceived as a separate bubble. Three bubbles are combined and aligned on an the axis that runs through their center, forming the overall space and structure of the building, creating a sense of sequence and feeling of continuous space. The perfect circular shape of the sphere, while referencing the building’s function – echoing the elements of water – has been applied for economic reasons, minimizing the cost of the structure.
The lighting details of the facility have also been carefully taken into account. The arc-curve arrangement has been determined on the basis of ensuring the lighting function. Echoing the simple and pure interior design concept, it emphasizes a sense of sequence, tracing the lines of the domed roof. Simultaneously, natural light is introduced into the interior through circular apertures in the ceiling.
Natatorium
Building an Earth Landscape
In planning the expansive sports campus, MAD has integrated many pedestrian walkways that interlace with one another, inviting citizens to leisurely explore the park. A large number of bicycle paths have also been introduced, acting as an extension of the urban roads through an express lane that allows daily commuters to pass through the park and its forested areas, and experience the beauty of nature.
A fitness bike path surrounds the perimeter of the park, providing exercise areas and different pedestrian and bike routes that encourage low-carbon travel. The idea is to create a sports park that is not an enclosed theme park, but rather a place that is truly integrated into the city and the daily lives of its citizens. Using imagination as a driving force, the complex, while dedicated to competitive sports and training, will also become a place for leisure activities for the public. Source by MAD.
Training Center
- Location: Quzhou, China
- Architect: MAD
- Partners in-charge: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
- Associate Partners in-charge: Liu Huiying, Kin Li, Fu Changrui
- Design team: Kin Li, Xu Chen, Li Cunhao, Iting Lien, Kyung Eun Na, Thoufeeq Ahmed, Alessandro Fisalli, Li Hui, Ma Yin, Tian Jin, Melanie Weitz, Ma Yue, Zhou Haimeng, Xiao Yuhan, Li Gang, Yuki Ishigami, Luis Torres, Su Le, Kang Wenzhao, Zhang Kai, Pittayapa Suriyapee, Yu Lin, Neeraj Mahajan, Connor Hymes, Zhang Yufei, Zhang Bo, Li Guangchong, Wang Qi, Song Minzhe, Cao Xi, Liu Hailun, Zhang Xiaomei, Zheng Kangcheng
- Owner: Quzhou West District Development and Construction Management Committee Class A
- Design Institute: Sidi International Design Consultant (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
- Landscape Planning Designer: PWP Landscape Architecture, EADG
- Structural Consultant: Schlaich Bergermann Partner
- Mechanical and Electrical Consultant: SC Consultant Limited
- Curtain Wall Consultant: RFR Asia
- Lighting Consultant: Beijing Ningzhijing Lighting Design Co., Ltd.
- Logo Design: Kenya Hara (Japan Design Center)
- Digital Media Support: SAN
- Base area: 574,931 square meters (Phase one: 327,370 square meters; Phase two: 247,561 square meters)
- Construction area: 390,074 square meters (Phase one: 269,474 square meters; Phase two: 120,600 square meters)
- Completed: 2021
- Images: Courtesy of MAD
Image © MAD 
Image © MAD Image © MAD 
Stadium 
Stadium 
Stadium Gymnasium 
Gymnasium Gymnasium 
Natatorium Natatorium Training Center 
Training Center 
Outdoor 
Outdoor 
Model 
Model 
Master Plan 
Under construction 
Under construction 
Mockup