NBBJ, in partnership with CCDI, designed the Hangzhou Sports Park on a 400,000-square-meter site on the Qian Tang riverfront opposite the city’s new Central Business District. The main stadium broke ground in 2011 and is slated for completion in 2017. As worldwide demand for steel increases — by 78% in the last decade alone — so does the cost, which has skyrocketed 217% since 2007. That’s why we use parametric design to cut waste while creating functionality and form. Our designers leveraged advanced parametric scripts and modeling techniques to develop and optimize the exterior shell of the Hangzhou stadium. The steel shell and concrete bowl systems were coordinated and linked for stability and optimized steel use. Because the model was parametric, design changes could be made with an extremely short turnaround, eliminating the “build-test-discard” method common in traditional modeling. The parametric model was used as the basis for cross-disciplinary collaboration with engineers and material consultants. The engineers and consultants could use the design team’s output directly for performing their specialized design and analysis operations. The close communication between disciplines enabled the design team to ensure quality control and also find opportunities for further optimization. The end result? We achieved a 67% steel savings over similar arenas like the famed Bird’s Nest, the Beijing National Stadium.

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