As a new landmark of Shanghai sports culture, SAIC Pudong Football Stadium is one of the important sports projects built by HPP in China, and it is also the first professional football stadium built in China to meet the requirements of FIFA international A-level competitions and AFC competition standards. The stadium is the new home of Shanghai Harbour Club and will also be one of the host venues for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
▲ SAIC Pudong Football Stadium © Zhang Qianxi
The international competition of SAIC Pudong Football Stadium began in 2016, the project land is only about 100,000 square meters, the owner asked to set up a main stadium and two outdoor training grounds, this harsh planning conditions make the design team must "fight for land" to carry out the design work. The stadium was originally built to provide Shanghai with an international high-level football stadium with a good experience for fans and players.
▲ General Floor Plan © HPP
▲ Flat and symmetrical layout © Zhang Qianxi
SAIC Pudong Football Stadium, also known as the "White Porcelain Bowl", the clean architectural shape tries to interpret the simple and light beauty of traditional Chinese porcelain. The building skin adopts delicate and uniform white metal materials, showing the clear and rounded white porcelain, and the roof design transmits the weight of rational technology through a high-tech ultra-light structural system, thus forming a natural architectural style that balances both inside and outside.
▲ Delicate and uniform building skin © Zhang Qianxi
▲ Simple roof structure © Zhang Qianxi
HPP has been pursuing the integration of function and form in the practice of sports architecture for many years, avoiding falling into the binary opposition between the infield and the image shell. In the overall design concept of SAIC Pudong Football Stadium, the designers prioritize the design considerations of fans and players- the two major groups of users of the stadium, and all the image appearance and infield design are carried out under the logic of serving the functions used by these two groups.
▲ Infield space © Zhang Qianxi
The curvature of the stadium stand structure forms the natural shell of the stadium, so that the construction logic and image shell of the stadium have reached a complete unity. The grandstand design pays attention to the boundary, the front side echoes the rectangular space of the center of the field, smooth and smooth, and the rear side adopts restrained lines to emphasize the overall tension, and the combination of the two forms a cohesive force, thus showing an orderly fan group. With fewer than 40,000 seats on the pitch, the smaller spectator capacity ensures that each seat is relatively close to the pitch, maximizing the view of the game. Therefore, in the course of the game, regardless of the angle and distance, there is a sense of "full boiling" experience in the football field.
▲ Sense © of order in the stands Zhang Qianxi
The roof design conveys the design concept of "less is more", expressing the weight of technical rationality through minimalist structure and light construction. After discussions with the structural consultant sbp, the designers used a spoke full-tensioning system to maximize the mechanical properties of the material – a force-based architecture that offers the advantages of a traditional truss in the case of a pu-foot cantilever length of 50 m.
▲ Structural explosion diagram © HPP
In addition, in order to achieve a systematic infield effect, the construction team reduced the number of beams in the radial beam of the main roof to 46 during the deepening of the roof details. From the perspective of presentation effect, the shape of the entire roof is simple and condensed, which not only reduces the amount of steel used, but also creates a clean and tidy infield roof, thus ensuring that the protagonist of the infield, the grandstand and lawn, is not disturbed by other forms.
▲ Simple and condensed roof shape © Zhang Qianxi
The circular architectural line is the control element of the entire infield, the lighting arrangement combined with the ring structure of the roof, through the upper and lower overlapping lamps to achieve the "jade belt"-like lighting effect, become a positive element to strengthen the expression of the structure, and undertake the "white porcelain bowl" elegant and soft design style.
▲ In the evening, overlooking the SAIC Pudong Football Stadium ©, Zhang Qianxi
As the first stadium in China to be planned and designed in accordance with FIFA standards, HPP responds to the existing regulations in China with a flexible strategy in the design of SAIC Pudong Football Stadium, unifying functions and structures through a concise and clear structural form. As more sports events and cultural activities are held at the SAIC Pudong Football Stadium, the stadium will not only be a container for sports matches, but also an important destination for citizens' daily leisure and a place to undertake life memories.
Project Information Project Name: SAIC Pudong Football Stadium
Location: Shanghai
Construction body: Shanghai Jiushi (Group) Co., Ltd
Design: HPP
Service content: architectural design + interior design + landscape design + general control
Partners: Jens Kump, Wei Yu
Co-partner: Feng Zipeng
Project Leader: Ding Xinyu (Architecture), Xu Heng (Interior), Kang Yi (Landscape) Architectural Team: Job Peter Upmeijer, Cui Hao, Weng Zijian, Ma Haitao, Li Tianxiang, Cheng Yuhai, Tan Junhui, Shen Jiajun, Wang Jingping, Wang Hongbin, Wang Weishu, Huang Wenqian, Zhou Nan, George Mocea, Wang Lin
Indoor team: Jiang Xinling, Wang Ning, Xie Chunli, Xiao Xue, Liu Cheng, Job Peter Upmeijer
Landscape team: Xu Yaping, Cao Jiao, Ni Jingjing
Site area: 100842 m²
Gross floor area: 139304 m²
Fixed seats: 33765
Completion: 2021
Cooperative unit: Huajian Group Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute Co., Ltd
Structural Consultant: SBP Schleich Engineering Consulting Ltd
Source, Copyright: HPP Architects