Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Center

In collaboration with CCDI

Jury Comments
RAIA International Architecture Commendation

The Beijing Olympic Green Tennis Centre is located on a gently sloping western edge of Forest Park – the vast new landscape that terminates the axis of the main Olympic site. The centrepiece of the complex is the 17,400-seat stadium, which sits above the terrain like a large opening flower. The balance of the facility is organized around a linear sequence of four giant platforms that step up the sloping park edge and so bring in the surrounding landscape into the site. There is a clear hierarchical and compositional organization to the site that culminates with the striking profile of the main stadium. The centre court stadium is composed of twelve segmented raking plates separated by tapered openings, which invites vision into the inner bowl. Combined with the dramatic cantilevered roof, this makes for a memorable structure. This is a very formal architectural solution but one delivered with consistency and strength of purpose.

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The Tennis Centre is a permanent venue which includes a 10,000 seat centre court, 4,000 and 2,000 seat show courts, seven 200 seat match courts and six practice courts with associated player, VIP and spectator support facilities. It is intended for this venue to become the home of the Chinese Tennis Federation in the future.

The Tennis Centre is an ordered ensemble of components with a symbolic Centre Court as the climax of the composition. A series of four giant scaled landscaped platforms organise the programme into a series of field-of-play clusters with support accommodation below.

Centre Court is situated on a large public concourse podium which houses within it all the VIP, player, official and BOH support areas. Player circulation to all the courts is facilitated by the lower level within the podiums which allows undisturbed access separated from the public domain.

Centre Court is composed of twelve raking segments which rise out of the platform and fold and separate into a dramatically cantilevering roof, shading two thirds of the seats. The twelve sided seating bowl of the centre court provides a clear structural proposition while giving excellent sight-lines and proximity to the field of play.  The openings between the segments induce natural ventilation while providing views out and engagement with the outside.

Heroically scaled concrete beams and raking structures define the structure of the courts and the platforms. The vigorous use of structure and geometry, combined with a robust and minimum use of materials, has provided a venue with an order and clarity rarely achieved in sporting venues.

The Olympic overlay design incorporates all technical and operational requirements into the base building design to ensure readiness for Olympic competition, and compliance with all specific requirements of the IOC and sports governing bodies.

Awards

2009 Bronze Medal IOC IAKS Award
2009 IPC/IAKS Distinction
2008 RAIA Commendation for International Architecture
2008 World Architecture Shortlist
2006 The 2006 Trophy of Century Construction Outstanding Award Integrated Awards