The City of Nan­jing has played a promi­nent role through­out China’s his­to­ry and is one of the country’s great con­tem­po­rary cities. Like many places across Asia, rapid growth has meant expe­dit­ed urban­iza­tion. The Puk­ou Dis­trict, across the Yangtze Riv­er from city cen­ter is no dif­fer­ent. What once was forests and farms has been trans­formed into the Cross-Strait Tech­nol­o­gy Indus­tri­al Park.

As part of this devel­op­ment, an expan­sive Sports and Cul­ture Cen­ter was designed to accom­mo­date the grow­ing com­mu­ni­ty and pro­vide ameni­ties that are fun­da­men­tal to dense urban liv­ing. Con­cep­tu­al­ly, the build­ing takes inspi­ra­tion from four ele­ments that embody the spir­it of Nan­jing: the Moun­tains, Water, Forests, and Wall. These points of engage­ment reflect the his­tor­i­cal and con­tem­po­rary val­ues of residents.

The four main fea­tures — the­ater, are­na, fit­ness cen­ter, and cul­tur­al hall — occu­py the cor­ners of the site and free up space for an inter­nal plaza that visu­al­ly pulls the adja­cent man-made riv­er into the site. At ground lev­el, each build­ing is visu­al­ly open, con­nect­ing the var­i­ous pro­grams and enrich­ing the user expe­ri­ence. Atop the open base sits a frost­ed vol­ume that appears to float effort­less­ly, human­iz­ing the scale of the build­ings, a much-need­ed approach in the Chi­nese context.

Encir­cling the four build­ings is a con­tem­po­rary inter­pre­ta­tion of the Ming Great Wall. Access to and from, through and above, pro­vides a diver­si­fied oppor­tu­ni­ty to engage with each build­ing in the com­plex while pro­vid­ing moments of respite to take in spec­tac­u­lar views of the inte­ri­or plaza and sur­round­ing region. Above all, the Cross-Strait Sports and Cul­ture Cen­ter works to pro­vide a for­ward look­ing rep­re­sen­ta­tion of a con­tem­po­rary coun­try while pay­ing homage to a rich past. 
 

Client: U+ Design Partners/​City of Nan­jing 
Pro­gram: The­ater, are­na, fit­ness cen­ter, and cul­tur­al hall 
Size: 1.5 mil­lion GSF / 1 mil­lion Net SF