The futuristic design of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center

Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center will be an impressive engineering achievement that will host the 2022 Asian games in China.

The sports center, which will cover an area of 400,000m², will be completed by May 2021 and will include a stadium, a natatorium, commercial facilities and parking lots. The project will consist of an upper and a lower section. The upper section, shaped by a series of cutaway ovals, will include the stadium and the natatorium while the lower part will house the commercial stores and parking lots.

Designers wanted to provide a masterpiece of architectural and civil engineering for the forthcoming Asian games that will be used by Hangzhou citizens afterwards. The project was developed by Beijing Institute of Architectural Design under the aegis of Hangzhou Olympic and International Expo Center Construction and Investment Co., Ltd. Building Information Modeling (BIM) was utilized to guide construction procedures. The main attraction of the project is the sophisticated design of the main natatorium. 

The structures were so complex that the design faced many challenges. The engineering team soon realized that conventional methodologies will be inadequate. Basically, the procedure of transforming fuzzy mathematical logic into surface space and shape was very demanding. The group utilized a BIM process using Bentley applications and introduced parametric methods to realize the structure. Then they produced terrain models and created a model to be aligned with its BIM process.

BIM process also optimized information share and collaboration of people involved in the project. Data, collected and updated, was available to all participants. Visual capabilities were implemented subsequently to better envision the final project. According to the team, 3D modeling and sharing the progress saved about 50% of the time needed to solve design issues. 

The construction of Hangzhou Olympic Sports Center is also beneficial for local population and the surrounding environment. The external roof will be constructed in advance to mitigate the noise and dust produced during the other construction tasks. Moreover, buildings' design will attract numerous people, making Hangzhou an international tourist destination. The project will be an example of how to accomplish a construction with such a complex design.

Source: Csengineermag.com