Aedas Founder and Chairman Keith Griffiths and Executive Director Fiona Chen led the team to innovatively deliver a public service center for the Zhuhai High-Tech Zone, which innovatively incorporates above-ground public facilities with an underground water treatment plant. The project will become a “Water Engine”, empowering the development of the city.
The vertical program juxtaposition is a response to the shortage of land and public facilities in high-density urban development. The vertical layout is realized through a series of design strategies such as a highly consistent and rationalized structural system, ground floor parking to control underground excavation, and an elevated walkway to avoid circulation pedestrian-vehicle interference, etc.
The above-ground sports center, as the core of the aboveground facilities, houses a 3100-seat gymnasium and a 1500-seat natatorium. Its facade design departs from the concept of “Sailing on Sea”, gaining a racing momentum with the powerful lines and resembling numbers of canoes competing in the torrent. It symbolizes the sportsmanship of surpassing as well as the best wishes for the future development of the Zhuhai high-tech zone. The project itself becomes a huge water recycling system. Its completion will be a role model for the sustainable infrastructural and environmental development of the city.
