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Half Stadium

For their intervention on the existing sport ground in a public school of Beijing Interval Architects created an architecture that stands in between an official stadium and a blank sport field.

The project calls for an intervention of the existing sport ground in a public school of Beijing.

Interval Architects define the project as an half stadium because the scale, size, formal expression and use of the architecture stands in between an official stadium and a blank sport field.

The site is in the northern part of the school where one-third of it is in the shadows throughout the year. It’s charged with a negative emotion and solitude which contrast greatly with the various activities that happen there every day. Originally the sport field consisted of an irregular track surrounded by an outdoor stage, a long stand, a flag-raising platform, several table-tennis tables, and two basketball fields. In the beginning, the principal of the school asked for a renovation of the existing outdoor stage and a stand opposite to the stage. However a mere renovation of the stage and stand was only a fragmented effort to better the appearance of individual components on the site.

The problem with the sport ground is that there is no sense of place and a lack of coherent relationship between various programs. This results in a series of problems including low visibility between stage and stand, lack of use of table tennis tables and basketball fields, mutual exclusion between programs and ambiguous identity of the entire sport ground.

Interval Architects offered a comprehensive approach by proposing a discontinuous loop structure that embodies all the programs into one single system yet allows each program to maintain its operational independence.

The sport ground is more unified with a single formal language and material. Existing trees no longer exist as barriers on the site but as buffer zones that connect different programs. The outdoor stage with a large cantilevered roof and the ping-pong pavilion on the north side of the sport ground eliminate the negative emotion in this shadowy zone. The horizontal continuity created by its scale make the stage and the table-tennis area more articulated on the site. The ping-pong pavilion also provide more seats and act as a wind barrier.