Silver Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2024
Natatorium of Southeast University Sports Centre
- A' Design Award 2024 Silver Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: Zhou Qi Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 31,897
- Verification code 59BF6F1CC5 · Verify this award
About Natatorium of Southeast University Sports Centre
The Natatorium of Southeast University is an indoor swimming pool built for a university campus in Nanjing, China. The building provides a venue for swimming and training, with a standard pool of 20 by 50 meters, changing rooms on the ground floor, and a gym and classrooms above. Continuous cast-in-place concrete arches form the walls and the roof as one whole, repeated in seven curved bays. The concrete is left bare to show the structure and the material, and the outer skin is dry-hung with red terracotta tiles. Large glazed areas link the interior with the campus outside.
Qi Zhou's Natatorium of Southeast University Sports Centre exemplifies a distinctive synthesis of structural expressionism and contextual sensitivity that positions this work within contemporary dialogues surrounding athletic architecture and institutional placemaking. The repetitive parabolic arch system demonstrates sophisticated understanding of structural efficiency, where the pointed profile optimizes load distribution while simultaneously creating visual rhythm that transforms utilitarian program into architectural experience. The material palette negotiates between universal modernist language and regional building traditions through the juxtaposition of board-formed concrete, bearing witness to its liquid origins through subtle surface variations, with terracotta roof tiles that reference centuries of ceramic craft and climatic adaptation. This chromatic conversation between the cool neutrality of cementite gray and the earthen warmth of fired clay suggests thoughtful mediation between technological progress and cultural continuity. The fenestration strategy maximizes natural illumination for the aquatic program within while articulating each structural bay as a distinct spatial unit, creating legible architectural grammar. The sculptural treatment of each arch's termination, curving gracefully outward before meeting the ground plane, demonstrates attention to experiential detail that elevates functional infrastructure to the realm of civic art. Surrounding landscape elements, including bamboo groves and mature shade trees, establish dialogue between built and natural systems that enhances both environmental performance and phenomenological richness. Viewers might contemplate how architectural form can simultaneously serve athletic function, express structural truth, and contribute to campus identity through memorable formal gesture.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The Natatorium of Southeast University is located near the east gate of the Jiulonghu Campus. It is the first indoor swimming pool in the history of Southeast University. The design uses continuous circular arches to break the body into pieces, to eliminate the sense of alienation of the volume. The arc of the building is like a flower, woven together in 7 repeating forms, which makes it look lively. The building does not have a so-called "top roof", its roof and wall as a whole.
- Dimensions & Packaging
- Land Area: 6892 square meters;
Gross Built Area: 5650 square meters;
Building Height: 10.5 meters, Width: 39 meters, Length: 91 meters;
Floors Above: 2 floors, Below: 1 - Tags
- Swimming, Fitness, Recreation, Concrete, Arch, Tile, Structure, Tectonic
- Production Technology
- Construction Method: Cast-in-place concrete, Dry-hanging terra-cotta tiles;
Performance Testing: Mechanical structure test, Material strength test, Daylighting simulation, Acoustic simulation;
Design Software: AutoCAD, Rhinoceros, Sketchup, Photoshop, V-Ray, D5 Render. - Design Challenge
- The main problems of the natatorium are span and humidity. Using concrete arches can well meet its structural requirements and concrete does not fear water. The concrete surface is free of paint and decorations, to present the most authentic state of the structure and materials. The skin of the building is dry-hung with red terracotta tiles, which are sustainable and can be replaced for 150 years. All the materials show their natural colors, so the structure is the building, and the building is the structure itself.
- Project Duration
- Year of Design: 2018;
Start of Construction: 2019.4;
End of Construction: 2022.10;
Location: Jiulonghu Campus, Southeast University, Nanjing, China - Operation Flow
- The main function of the Natatorium of Southeast University is to provide the campus with a fitness venue for swimming and training. The plane is rectangular, the swimming pool is a standard size of 20*50 meters, and the water circulation equipment and machinery are set underground. The internal space of the natatorium is organized in the manner of a regular gymnasium, with a changing room and swimming pool on the ground floor and a gym and classrooms on the second floor.
- Research
- In the process of construction, the natatorium used cast-in-place concrete, which requires much manual prefabrication of formwork. The scaffolding covered the whole site, which was more than 10 meters high and covered an area of 120*40 meters. Casting curved arches in mid-air is an anti-trend, anti-industrial architectural behavior. Each concrete arch meets a point when it falls to the ground and the excess is "sheared" off to form a natural arch bottom, which cannot be accomplished through assembly.
- Inspiration
- The space of the natatorium is made up of multiple curved surfaces, forming a sense of rhythm. Fluid water, moving people and static building, gray concrete and blue water, sunlight refracted by louvers and shadows formed by geometry, all of which stimulate a strong sense of place. The arch structure of concrete is in line with the mechanical requirements, and the facade uses a large area of glazing, which forms an interaction between behaviors and sights of the people inside and outside.
- Image Credits
- Image #01: Zhou Qi Studio, Exterior Arches, 2023.
Image #02: Zhou Qi Studio, Exterior Elevation, 2023.
Image #03: Zhou Qi Studio, Interior Elevation, 2023.
Image #04: Zhou Qi Studio, Interior Space, 2023.
Image #05: Zhou Qi Studio, Aerial Context, 2023.
Video: Zhou Qi Studio, Natatorium of Southeast University, 2023. - Patents
- Copyrights belong to Architects & Engineers Co., Ltd of Southeast University-Zhou Qi Studio, 2023.