The Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University (UAD) has completed a sports and cultural center in Shaoxing, China.

Called The Hangzhou Asian Games Baseball and Softball Sports Cultural Center, the complex is drawn on a radial-shaped form resembling the “wings of cloud”. The project is described as a sports community integrated with the city.

The baseball field and softball field at dawn

“The intrinsic nature of sports architecture prompts us to rethink how to organize its intrinsic relationship with the city,” said Qian Xidong.

“We wanted to build a sports community driven by the stadium, which fully considers the multiple possibilities in the urban context and integrates them into urban life with a forward-looking perspective.

“At the same time, the concept of sharing and opening runs through the whole life cycle of the building, making it a link between culture and life, giving sports buildings unique public service value,” Qian Xidong added.

The baseball field in the early morning

Read the full design story with the architects’ own words. The 19th Asian Games will be held in 2023 in Hangzhou, China. Hangzhou Asian Games Baseball and Softball Sports Cultural Center, as the largest new venue of the Asian Games, is also the largest baseball and softball sports center with the highest standard and the most advanced facilities in China.

It will inject new vitality into the surrounding communities and make sports become the local cultural background.

The slender steel columns under the canopy

UAD believes that sports buildings should not only focus on the function of sports competitions, but also emphasize the flexibility of public services to adapt to the social trend of open sharing.

It is an important feature of the Baseball and Softball Sports Cultural Center different from traditional paradigm to construct a community-type sports culture complex and make it become the core force of surrounding environment and region.