Quzhou Sports Park recently started construction in Quzhou, a historic city in Zhejiang Province. The sports park covers an area of ​​about 700,000 square meters, with a total construction area of ​​about 340,000 square meters for the first and second phases, including a stadium that can accommodate 30,000 people, a gymnasium that can accommodate 10,000 people, as well as a swimming pool, a comprehensive national sports center, outdoor sports venues, a science and technology museum, a youth palace, a hotel, and commercial facilities. MAD's design combines the functions of sports venues with natural landscapes, creating a land art landscape in the shape of volcanoes and mirror lakes in the city center.

Ma Yansong: "We dream of creating not only an urban space for sports and ecology, but also a unique land art park in the world, establishing a cultural heritage relationship with the city's landscape history."

Quzhou, Zhejiang, is a famous cultural city with thousands of years of history. It is rich in traditional culture and philosophical thoughts, with beautiful mountains and rivers and a forest coverage rate of 71.5%. The profound historical and regional culture and natural landscapes are the most precious resources of this city. MAD envisions creating an ethereal, quiet and surreal land landscape art in the modern city, like an alien fantasy, which will become the spiritual home of the city in the future.

The park is surrounded by tall and dense trees. People enter the park from the city and gradually enter the uninhabited land. The view is suddenly open, but at the same time, they suddenly feel trance, as if they have fallen into Mars, mysterious and illusory. The overall environment is rolling and undulating, and the mountain terrain flows continuously, sometimes slowly and openly, and sometimes overlapping and layered. People drift and climb in it. A mirror lake in the park reflects the mountains in the sky, reaching a spiritual realm that no one can reach. The stadium, which is shaped like a meteorite crater, lies on the ground. The "halo belt" on the top of the stadium is like swaying clouds, which makes people want to touch it and explore the reality. Several "small hills" adjacent to the northeast are rolling and undulating, covering the gymnasium, swimming pool, and comprehensive hall below, and public space and landscape above, attracting people to climb high and look far.

The buildings in the park break the traditional way of highlighting the structural strength of the stadium and transform it into a more intrinsic and implicit beauty. The building is connected to nature everywhere inside and outside, and people in it can immerse themselves in nature at any time. The paths between the mountains and rivers are intertwined, and people can walk slowly, run on the trails, or enjoy the scenery on the lawn. The central lake is also a sunken garden, where people can see the water surface at the same level, and truly feel the wonder and shock of being surrounded by sky and water. Inside the building: platforms or skylights are designed on the "peaks" and "mountainside" of several "small hills" so that natural light can directly reach the interior and realize natural ventilation of the building; earth-covered buildings are green, energy-saving and close to human scale. Outside the building: people can climb the "hills" along the trails of the "mountain" and talk to the world.

Quzhou Sports Park abandons the traditional modern urban construction model of large squares and large landmarks, and takes land art and natural landscapes as the starting point of urban space design, pursuing the spiritual unity of people, nature and culture in the city. The Olympics put forward the slogan of "higher, faster, stronger" in the early days of human beings entering modern civilization, which also coincides with the value orientation of challenging and conquering nature in modern urban construction in the past century. However, future urban development should usher in a new era and take the harmonious relationship between man and nature as a new goal to pursue.

Ma Yansong said: "The relationship between man and nature is not only about ecology and green, but also about spirit and artistic conception. This is the culture and philosophy that has long been contained in the history of this land and needs to be developed in future cities."

Quzhou Sports Park
Quzhou, China
2018 - 2021

Site area: 699,040 sqm (Phase I 327,370 sqm; Phase II 371,670 sqm)
Building area: 337,500 sqm (Phase I 264,100 sqm; Phase II 73,400 sqm)

Partners in charge: Ma Yansong, Dang Qun, Yosuke Hayano
Partners in charge: Liu Huiying, Li Jian, Fu Changrui
Design team: Xu Chen, Li Guangchong, Lian Yiting, Li Cunhao, Liu Hailun, Li Hui, Ma Yin, Kyung Eun Na, Alessandro Fisalli, Kang Wenzhao, Thoufeeq Ahmed, Zhou Haimeng, Neeraj Mahajan, Zhang Yufei

Owner: Quzhou West District Development and Construction Management Committee
Grade A Design Institute: Xidi International Design Consultants (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.
Landscape Planning and Design: PWP Landscape Architecture
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.
Digital media support: SAN