What kind of sports architecture is "worthy of the times"?
Wei Dun Mountain
Born in 1933, He is the chief architect of East China Construction Group Co., Ltd., an expert in sports architectural design, a national first-class registered architect, and an academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering. The design of the Shanghai Gymnasium and Shanghai Swimming Pool were included in the "History of World Architecture" published by the Royal Architectural Society of the United Kingdom, and the Designed Shanghai Stadium was awarded the "Top Ten Classic Architecture Gold Awards in Shanghai for the 50th Anniversary of New China", and won the first "Liang Sicheng Architecture Award" in 2000.
Architectural design, will be planned by the layout of the "big idea"
Turn to the delicate and delicate "brush strokes"
Shangguan News: In the eyes of others, you have long been successful, but why do you have to go to work and insist on working every day at the age of 89?
Wei Dunshan: I haven't thought about retiring yet. My office is on Shimen 2nd Road in Jing'an District, just across the road from my home. At that time, I moved my family to the neighborhood for the convenience of going to work, and I used to ride to work, but now I have changed to walking, and my steps are still relatively stable.
At present, I am almost every day "nine to five", although I have retreated to the second line, but I still have to check for many large projects, and sometimes I have to go to other places to see the progress of the project. I don't have the habit of taking a nap, and I can recover my spirits by resting on the couch for twenty minutes after lunch.
Shangguan News: What is your "secret" to stay healthy and energetic?
Wei Dunshan: I have always been in a working state, but at the same time I like to "roll a foot" in many things, including painting, photography, Peking Opera, mountaineering, swimming, etc., I am very interested.
A wide range of interests and hobbies is a positive attitude towards life, and it is also an effective way to expand ideas and enhance knowledge. For architectural designers, this is not "not doing the right thing", but can better carry out the main business. Sometimes, just inadvertently, a painstakingly sought "inspiration" will suddenly appear.
In addition, our design institute set up the "Wei Dunshan Architectural Creation Research Room" a few years ago, and most of the research rooms are young people. As a director, I enjoy being with them, I can feel the vitality and vitality, and I feel that I am still young.
Shangguan News: I heard that Peking Opera has inspired your architectural design a lot?
Wei Dunshan: Indeed. When I was still a student at Xuhui Middle School, I loved to listen to Peking Opera, and I especially liked Zhou Xinfang's Qipai. Peking Opera's face is also very interesting, exaggerated colors, endless changes in lines, can depict the character of the characters, to achieve a strong aesthetic effect, no wonder it is called "spiritual picture".
Facebook has given me a profound impact and inspiration. When I stepped into the position of architect, I found that buildings are really similar to "faces": they also pay attention to symmetry, axis, and graphic changes. For more than 60 years, I have designed hundreds of civil construction projects, and for this reason I have won the National Excellent Design Award, the National Science and Technology Progress Award, and the National Excellent Engineering Design Gold Award. Looking back, isn't this project just like a "face" with its own charm?
Shangguan News: Not only that, but you also painted "faces" abroad.
Wei Dunshan: I often jokingly say that from the design of the Cairo International Convention Center in Egypt, my "architectural face" was depicted all the way from Egypt to Nigeria, Mauritania, Vietnam and other countries.
In 1984, I presided over the design of the Cairo International Conference Center in Egypt, an important foreign aid project. Egypt is an ancient civilization, and its architectural style is more geometric. In my design, I mainly used the Islamic pointed arcade of the circular building, combining innovation with tradition, and also incorporating the Chinese courtyard style. Because of this design, I received a commendation order signed by the President of Egypt and a "Military Medal of the First Class" issued. I know that this honor was actually given to China.
Shangguan News: Not long ago, Shanghai released for the first time a list of shanghai's outstanding contemporary architecture recommendations, listing representative buildings built between 1949 and 2000, and the "three-piece set" and "two streets and one lane" of Shanghai sports architecture you designed were on the list. What is the point of mentioning these buildings today?
Wei Dunshan: Since the reform and opening up in Shanghai, the practice of urban construction and the protection of historical buildings has been at the forefront of the country, and the five batches of outstanding historical buildings that have been promulgated basically cover the historical buildings before 1949. However, since the founding of New China, the vast majority of outstanding buildings representing different categories in various historical periods have not yet been included in the protection list, and the existing value has not been fully concerned, and even a few have been destroyed, which has become an urgent concern in the era of stock development. It is of great significance that Shanghai has initiated a value assessment and survey of these buildings since 2017.
Take Zhangmiao Street, for example, it is one of the workers' villages built earlier after the founding of New China, and has a relatively unique position in the history of china's urban residential area construction. When we pay attention to the internal environment of the community, we also think about how to improve and enhance the overall style of the street surface, rationally layout residential and shops, schools, etc., so that the supporting facilities are complete and high standards, and a new idea of residential community design has been formed in Shanghai and even the whole country.
Shangguan News: For more than half a century, you have witnessed and promoted the development of Shanghai's architectural design industry. What do you think about the future of Shanghai's architectural design industry?
Wei Dunshan: I have experienced the golden age of architectural development in Shanghai. Through the continuous efforts of generations of architects, architectural works from Shanghai have spread to various cities and regions around the world. At present, Shanghai Construction has moved towards high-tech, high-economic value-added architectural design and engineering consulting services. In the future, the practice mode of Shanghai's construction service trade will definitely shift from the "big idea" of the layout to the delicate and delicate "work stroke" and enter a new fast lane of development.
Mount Weidun in Egypt. Respondents provided
Don't have a nice skin but empty content
Don't pursue strange shapes, just for the eyeballs of people
Shangguan News: With the development of the times, sports architecture has also unconsciously become more beautiful. Take the Beijing Winter Olympics, many of the 25 venues are newly built, how do you evaluate these sports buildings?
Wei Dunshan: I pay attention to the Winter Olympics every day, especially the major venues, including the National Speed Skating Hall "Ice Ribbon", the National Ski Jumping Center "Snow Ruyi" and the skywalk "Ice Jade Ring". Ice and snow sports place high demands on the function of the venue, and these new buildings are not only beautiful and flexible, but also cleverly meet the functional requirements through design, but also very economical and environmentally friendly.
I am particularly pleased to see that the works of Chinese architects serve the theory of sustainable development, closely integrating architectural planning methods with architectural design, and running through the entire spatial system from overall planning to individual venues. The construction of ice and snow sports venues can bring about the development of tourism industry and ski industry in villages and towns, and can also promote the upgrading of infrastructure investment and employment structure, thereby improving the living standards of a region. In each building unit, in the face of complex mountainous and cold climates, designers must carry out fully professional, full-life cycle sustainable design, transforming sports competition facilities into local community facilities, so as to promote new sports concepts.
Shangguan News: The grandeur of architecture and the beauty of design make people have beautiful expectations for sports and life. Where does the beauty in sports architecture design come from?
Wei Dunshan: This kind of beauty actually comes from the constant exploration and creation of architectural designers and the renewal of ideas. Take the "ice ribbon" as an example, this building shaped like an "ice top" has a high scientific and technological content. The 22 rotating light strips of the façade are spliced together by thousands of pieces of curved glass, and the ice-like transparent outer glass curtain wall has a complex skeleton, but the design concept behind the complexity is simple and warm, which has both a strong Chinese memory and a long history and culture.
A distinctive feature of sports architecture is a large span and large space, and its shape should not only fully display the strength and momentum of sports, but also reflect the simple and smooth overall style. Therefore, a successful sports building should be a perfect combination of architectural technology and architectural art.
The Winter Olympic Speed Skating Competition was held at the National Speed Skating Hall "Ice Ribbon". Xinhua News Agency photo
Shangguan News: The goal you set for yourself at that time was to design works that were worthy of the times and worthy of future generations. What kind of sports architecture can be called "worthy of the times"?
Wei Dunshan: The core of cultural and sports venues is to meet the daily exercise and literary and artistic needs of the people. I would like to say on the other hand, "worthy of the times" sports buildings, to avoid some drawbacks - one to avoid the stadium in a sparsely populated place, may hold so many games, the people usually can not use, can not afford; second, we must pay attention to functionality, do not "skin" good-looking but "content" hollow, do not pursue "strange shape", only for the eyeballs of the people.
Shangguan News: Architects are not sports professionals, so how do you ensure that the sports buildings you design meet your professional needs?
Wei Dunshan: First of all, we should pay attention to sports competitions. I've had a good time playing sports on TV, I like to watch all kinds of sports competitions, and I pay special attention to the venues of sports competitions.
Of course, it is more important to ask for professional advice. For example, the diving pool of the Oriental Sports Center is much wider than the swimming pool, in the shape of a "T", this is because we listened to the advice of Zhou Jihong, the leader of the Chinese diving team at the beginning of the design - in the past, the width of the plunge pool generally only needed to meet the single diving, and later there was a double diving competition, and the competition and training equipment often could not be put down, so we adjusted it when designing. In the spectator area and the athletes' area in the stadium, we use different air conditioning and air supply systems. Because the water temperature of the swimming pool must be controlled at 28 ° C, the air temperature in the athletes' area must not be much different to ensure that the athletes have more good results, and the "world's best" curve of the Shanghai International Circuit, which we designed, is also the professional technical support provided by the Organizers of the German F1 Competition.
Shangguan News: You once said that the construction profession is the "Wanbao Encyclopedia" and the construction industry is the "service industry".
Wei Dunshan: To do our construction industry, we must understand everything and constantly experience life in order to design "people-oriented" architectural works. And our industry is also a service industry, our design is to serve the people, to serve life.
Since the 1960s when I designed the "second street and one lane" of Zhangmiao Street, Minhang Street and Fangua Lane, the Shanghai Diving Pool, Hongkou Football Stadium, Shanghai International Gymnastics Center, Shanghai International Circuit, Kunming Hongta Sports Center, Vietnam National Stadium, etc., we are all designed from the standpoint of meeting the needs of the people. After the design and construction is completed and put into use, we always pay attention to these buildings and areas, constantly sensing whether their functions are perfect in the process of changing the times, and what can be improved, at any time with the subsequent transformation and optimization project.
Interior view of the Oriental Sports Center. Photo by Haishar, a reporter of this newspaper
On the first day of the Year of the Tiger, the newly renovated Xujiahui Sports Park began trial operation, and the sports venues were almost full and in full swing.
For many Shanghainese, this new sports landmark also carries people's collective memory – there is a "three-piece set" of Shanghai sports architecture, shanghai stadium and Shanghai swimming pool. And they are from the same designer, Wei Dunshan.
Recently, the reporter chatted with Elder Wei in his office for an afternoon. The 89-year-old "father of Shanghai sports architecture" has a quick mind and is still full of enthusiasm when it comes to sports architecture.
New designs inevitably subvert and transcend the old ones
But some of the ideas are in the same vein
Shangguan News: The newly unveiled Xujiahui Sports Park has recently become a punching point for Internet celebrities, do you think this renovation is successful?
Wei Dunshan: I think it was a success. Xujiahui Sports Park is the most complete sports and cultural agglomeration area in Shanghai, and this comprehensive transformation benefits thousands of households and is a people's livelihood project. I was very concerned about it in the early stages of the renovation. During the design phase, I made many return visits to the site in order to provide planning and design suggestions to Jiushi Sports Group and the designers. The most intensive period of time was when the temperature was high, which was a challenge to my body, but every visit gained new feelings.
I agree with the two principles proposed in this transformation. The first is "tailor-made", matching the transformation of existing building spaces, laying out national fitness and professional service functions; second, it is forward-looking and can meet the needs of top events and event supporting space layout. In the past, many sports elements were gathered here, and the original landmark sports venues had a better viewing experience, but the participation of the masses was not high enough. An important purpose of transforming into Xujiahui Sports Park is to serve the people, make mass sports more active, and make the green space more pleasant.
Shangguan News: The "three-piece set" of Shanghai sports architecture is all your works, and this time they are retained and "upgraded", how do you feel?
Wei Dunshan: Every designer values his work as much as he does for his own children. I am very relieved to know that they have been retained.
Although this "two museums and one exhibition" belongs to the early works of the city, even from the current point of view, many design concepts and technological levels are still very advanced. The Shanghai Gymnasium was built from 1970 to 1974, the Shanghai Swimming Pool from 1983 to 1984, and the Shanghai Stadium from 1993 to 1995. When designing these buildings, I have been paying attention to and learning the design characteristics of international sports architecture, and creating sports architecture works based on various concepts.
They used to be very ahead of their time, but they are gradually beginning to be difficult to adapt to new needs, and it is imperative to give new functional positioning. In this renovation, the Shanghai Stadium maintains its original style, carries out structural reinforcement, and the new interior is more suitable for hosting the top international events; the swimming pool is demolished, the event function is stripped away, and it becomes a professional training place; the Shanghai Stadium has added supporting facilities to hold athletics events and grass sports in the future. The public space in front of the "Second Hall and One Hall" is built into a celebration square, and the north space forms an aerobic park, and the sports park on the south side is connected with a circular fitness track. Through the upgrading of the venue's functions and the transformation of the outdoor environment, it is believed that it will become a center of excellence in sports events, an active sports park for the masses and a classic sports and cultural landmark.
The remodeled Xujiahui Sports Park. Photo by Haishar, a reporter of this newspaper
Shangguan News: Some people say that this renovation continues your "three-piece set" architectural concept.
Wei Dunshan: I dare not say "continuation". The new design necessarily subverts and transcends the old, but some ideas are indeed the same.
My architectural concept is people-oriented, based on "pure and simple", based on the environment, and based on the times. Architecture creates space to meet the requirements of human life and production of many activities, everything starts from "people-oriented", pure and concise, and maximizes the quality of "architectural function"; based on the environment, so that the building takes root in a specific space, enhances the overall effect of architecture and the environment, so as to make the image of architectural art tend to be perfect; and the current era is developing at a fast speed, facing the future, information, digital, energy, ecology, high-tech, etc., have created "impact the future, create the future" for our architectural design career. A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. These are also the goals that Xujiahui Sports Park wants to achieve when renovating.
Shangguan News: In recent years, sports "hard facilities" have increasingly become the "soft power" of cities.
Wei Dunshan: Sports is where a country's soft power lies, and sports architecture is also one of the dimensions that measure this soft power. So this time I am particularly pleased to see that Xujiahui Sports Park is open to the public around the clock and is becoming a gathering place for sports fans in Shanghai. It can be said to be the "big heart" of the urban movement, full of vitality.
These "world class" sports buildings
From the current point of view, it is also cutting-edge
Shangguan News: The Shanghai Gymnasium, which can accommodate 18,000 spectators, is the first large-span network structure stadium in mainland China. In 2004, it underwent a renovation and you led the team to provide the entire design. After many years, you can revisit its design highlights.
Wei Dunshan: I got the inspiration for the Shanghai Gymnasium from the Temple of Heaven in Beijing, which is designed as a circular building supported by wide steps, with a diameter of 114 meters and a height of 33.6 meters. I remember that when the Shanghai Gymnasium was completed in the 1970s, a reporter wrote with excitement: "A stadium with the world's advanced level of 10,000 people was born in Shanghai." ”
But the Shanghai Gymnasium is also getting "older". In the early 21st century, in order to expand its influence in China, the US NBA planned to move a preseason game to Shanghai. But after NBA officials came to the Shanghai Gymnasium for a field trip, they reluctantly rejected this idea.
In 2004, the municipal government approved the renovation plan of the Shanghai Gymnasium. The immediate purpose of the decision to remodel was to host the 2004 NBA preseason Houston Rockets vs. Sacramento Kings, as well as the 2005 World Table Tennis Championships.
At that time, together with Chen Guoliang, vice president of the Shanghai Architectural Design and Research Institute, I led the team to provide a complete set of solutions for this renovation. One of the characteristics of the reconstruction is also "people-oriented", that is, the stadium facilities and functional facilities, first of all to meet the requirements of athletes, spectators, journalists as the starting point. Specifically, it includes resurfacing of pipelines, renovation of the lights and spectator seats in the stadium, the addition of VIP boxes, press seats and modern communication facilities, the renovation of the athletes' lounge and training grounds, and the renovation of the exterior walls of the stadium.
Floor plan of Shanghai Indoor Stadium. Respondents provided
Shangguan News: Prior to that, in 1999, the Shanghai Gymnasium underwent a partial transformation and became a big stage in Shanghai.
Wei Dunshan: That's right. At that time, part of the grandstand was converted into a large stage, thereby increasing the function of theatrical performance. In the 2004 reconstruction, the large stage was not demolished, and the function of theatrical performance was retained while strengthening the sports function.
So, when holding a large sports competition, how does the big stage change its function? Our "brilliant plan" is to build the NBA's luxury VIP seats and state-of-the-art press seats on the big stage, all of which are mobile. In October 2004, Yao Ming made his debut as an NBA player in Shanghai at the remodeled Shanghai Gymnasium.
In 2004, on the eve of the start of the reconstruction project of the Shanghai Gymnasium. Xinhua News Agency photo
Shangguan News: The high-profile Shanghai Stadium, the design process is more exciting, right?
Wei Dunshan: The design of the Shanghai Stadium is a model of architectural innovation using the latest contemporary technology, and even now it seems to be cutting-edge. On a very limited land, it accommodates comprehensive functions such as large-scale international athletics football competition venues, star-rated hotels and water clubs, and the base is small, functional and demanding. From the beginning of the schematic design in 1991 to the transfer to the site design and the completion of the construction drawings in 1993, the three years can be described as full dedication, which is a challenge that I have never faced in more than 40 years of design career.
Floor plan of Shanghai Stadium. Respondents provided
Shangguan News: It is said that you came up with a brilliant idea of "asking for heaven and earth".
Wei Dunshan: Yes, we designed the stadium as a large and small inverted cone ring structure, suddenly borrowed 30,000 square meters of area from the air, built a two-story platform with a width of 20 meters and a circumference of nearly 1,000 meters, and also properly solved the evacuation problem of tens of thousands of spectators. The overall shape of the Shanghai Stadium is like a hat, and the top is split into more than 50 undulating hills. I deliberately changed the east-west symmetry of the traditional stadium in design, consciously moving west high (three-story grandstands) and east-low (two-story grandstands) to increase undulation and movement. As for why it is not high in the east and low in the west, if you think about the direction of the sun when the sports game is held, you will understand.
We wanted to make the roof of the stadium lighter, so we designed to add steel cables to the steel truss structure. I led the structural designer to accurately calculate the number of steel cables and the optimal value of the prestress of the steel cables, changed the traditional practice, and proposed a "one-arm cantilever truss" to support the lightweight glass fiber canopy film, which became the first design classic in China and rare in the world. The longest cantilever beam was 73.5 meters long, the largest in the world at the time. This innovative concept was further developed when the Hongkou Football Stadium was later designed.
Rehearsal for the opening ceremony of the Special Olympics held at the Shanghai Stadium in 2007. Photo by Yin Liqin
Shangguan News: Speaking of "world-class", the Shanghai Swimming Pool is also one of them. This unique symmetrical unequal hexagonal building was once called "world-class" by former IOC President Samaranch.
Wei Dunshan: At that time, we designed 10 diving platforms of different heights, and the east and west grandstands were deliberately changed into trapezoidal planes, which could accommodate more than 4,000 spectators, and most of the seats were arranged in the middle of the stands, so that the audience could get the best view to watch the game and performance. The whole hall adopts a novel "double-storey duplex space" structure, which can reasonably divide the indoor space while preventing the generation of condensate, and solve the common problem of long sound quality reverberation time in the indoor swimming pool. We use aluminum alloy microporous sound absorbing materials on the wall and top. During the game, the whole stadium whistled, shouted, and cheered one after another, but there was no roar or echo.
Shanghai swimming pool from design to completion only took 18 months, our more than forty designers, the drawing table moved to the site, all night work; the construction company responsible for civil engineering, installation tasks worked day and night, weighing 561 tons of large roof grid frame, with the cooperation of construction personnel, a one-time hoisting success; and the unit that undertook the decoration outside the museum, which took 40 days to complete the task of 2 months... More than 100 enterprises across the country provided materials and equipment for this construction, which is the product of great cooperation in all directions.
Shanghai Swimming Pool. Respondents provided