Archi-Tectonics’ Hybrid Stadium & concert hall is the Centerpiece of Hangzhou Asian Games 2023

This 6500-seat centerpiece for the Hangzhou Asian Games 2023 Park is located at the south end of the park entrance and accessed via two curved bridges. The 35,000m2 structure is designed to function as attractor and generator of new socio-cultural activities and hence was proposed as Hybrid; merging sports events with a concert hall / event space for Hangzhou after the games.

The Hybrid embodies the heritage of the region, adapting the intersecting geometry of the Cong—an ancient Jade-stone artifact in the shape of a square tube with a circular bore— a hybrid building, rather than a singular stadium, that maximizes legacy adaptability and embraces the spirit of Hangzhou.  Archi-Tectonics’ parametric design optimized this in a hybrid taxonomy, two intersecting ellipses with overlapping spaces that allow for fluid connections within the interiors and connect to the exterior. The result is a highly adaptable set of volumes that can seamlessly convert to event space after the games. A hybrid seating model further promotes this adaptability.

Innovation: Suspendome Roof
The suspendome roof facilitates for the entire space to be column-free and naturally lit and ventilated. A large oculus brings natural light into the bowl, using a large sculptural deflector to soften the sunlight and diffuse it evenly throughout the space. A continuous band of operable windows below the stadium roof facilitates natural ventilation of the entrance lobby and main circulation space surrounding the inner bowl. An integrated under-seat cooling system for the inner bowl cools the viewers, while minimizing air movement—a requirement for competitive table tennis venues—while significantly reducing the cooling and heating demand. The building is embedded within an Eco-Park based on Sponge City design principles, retaining, collecting, and filtering stormwater for re-use in the stadium.

'The building acts as an organic body, sensing the need for natural ventilation, allowing natural daylight, and the whole building is water-cooled via the new wetlands,' says Winka Dubbeldam.

Daylight also enters through the double curved diagrid glass facade, with its deep structural sections providing natural shading during the summer and generous glazing providing natural heating during the winter. These greatly reduce heating and cooling loads during much of the year. The building achieved 'Green Building Evaluation Label 3 Star' (GBEL 3 Star), the highest level of sustainability in China and equivalent to LEED Platinum.

Sustainability and Materials Efficiency
The building uses renewable or recycled materials, such as recycled brass for the exterior facade and locally sourced bamboo cladding for the stadium interior. All main public circulation areas—as well as the center stadium bowl—are naturally lit and ventilated to the extent of sports regulations permitting.

Using BIM in coordination with the structural engineer and local fabricator, we arrived at a design that used as few unique modules as possible, making for efficient coordination with international fabricators and construction teams. Through full BIM integration and optimization, Archi-Tectonics through the suspendome and the diagrid façade saved significant amount of steel, and accelerated construction time by 20%, allowing for the building to be inaugurated a year before the start of the Asian Games.