News
COLOGNE, GERMANY – HOK Sport has won two of the four gold awards presented in the world’s only international architecture awards for sports buildings, the prestigious IOC/IAKS Award 2007, announced in Cologne in Germany.
Nanjing Sports Park in China and the Oval Lingotto in Turin, Italy, both won gold awards. Nanjing Sports park was designed out of the firm’s Brisbane office as the home to the 10th China National Games. It opened in 2005. Oval Lingotto was designed by HOK Sport’s London office with Studio Zoppini Associati, Milan. It was used as a speed skating venue during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
The awards, known as the Oscars of international sports architecture, were decided by a jury of international representatives from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) and the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) at a meeting in Cologne.
The entries were made jointly by designers and operators, and HOK Sport was one of 88 teams from 27 countries to participate in the competition this year. The facilities, which could be new buildings or extensions to existing buildings, had to be in operation for at least a year.
Nanjing Sports Park is one of the largest sports projects ever completed in Asia, and HOK Sport Senior Principal Paul Henry said the award was particularly significant because it demonstrated the increasing importance of quality sports facilities in the rapidly developing urbanized China.
“Each city in China wants new sports facilities,” said Henry. “The Chinese Government was insistent that every aspect of the Nanjing Sports Park was carried out to the highest possible standard; from big picture challenges like the urban integration of many sports buildings within one site, down to the detail of the handrails in each facility.”
“The Government also wanted HOK Sport to be part of every stage of the project from masterplan to completion of the buildings,” said Henry. “The consistency this provided contributed to the Sport Park’s success.”
The Sports Park, which includes a 60,000 seat stadium, an arena, aquatic centre and tennis centre, forms the centrepiece of a new downtown precinct development marking a new generation of stadia, and illustrating the significance of sport as a catalyst for urban development in China.
The Oval Lingotto’s innovative and highly technical architecture is what captured jurors’ attention. The building was designed to help skaters achieve record speeds. It accommodated 8,000 spectators during the Games, and, in legacy mode, has 2,000 permanent seats for either speed skating or exhibition use.
“From the outset, our aim was to satisfy the Olympic requirements for this highly technical building using an innovative structural design to create an impression of a muscular, living canopy to embrace the spectacle of the fastest human-propelled, non-mechanically aided sport on earth,” said HOK Sport Senior Principal John Barrow.
The building has been carefully scaled to the size of the skating track.
The distinctive building has been described by Olympic officials and athletes as world class for its beauty, functionality and technology. A gently arching roof curves from east to west and is supported on a steel structure consisting of free spanning spine trusses which lend a sensational vaulted effect to the interior. The roof is completely suspended without intermediate supports, so as to create superb sightlines and a single free area. Perfect radiuses of curvature at the bends and ideal technical solutions for incorporating the ice, technological systems and management spaces have all been of paramount importance during the design.
For further information please contact
Gina Leo at HOK Sport (Kansas City)
Telephone: +1 816 221 1500
Facsimile: +1 816 221 1578
Helen Caswell at HOK Sport (London)
Telephone +44 (0)20 8874 7666
Facsimilie +44 (0)20 8874 7470
Michele Fleming at HOK Sport (Brisbane)
Telephone +61 (0)7 3839 9155
Facsimilie +61 (0)7 3839 9188
Email media@hoksve.com