Approach Design covers convention centre in Hangzhou with a sports park
Chinese architects Approach Design has added a new hall to the Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Centre in China and concealed it under a green roof featuring a running track and sports courts.
After originally designing a large latticed structure for the first stage of the convention centre in 2015, demands for more space led to the architects developing a second, adjacent building.
![Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Center by Approach Design has a green roof with a running track](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/hangzhou-cloud-town-exhibition-centre-approach-design-sports-park-green-roof-china_dezeen_2364_col_9-852x639.jpg)
Hangzhou practice Approach Design decided to take a different approach for the new hall, rather than simply build an extension to the original convention centre.
"Just when everyone expected an even larger, iconic building, we designed it as a park," said the studio.
![Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Center by Approach Design has a green roof with a running track](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/hangzhou-cloud-town-exhibition-centre-approach-design-sports-park-green-roof-china_dezeen_2364_col_17-852x569.jpg)
The new nine-metre-high exhibition hall is sunk three metres underground, minimising its profile in the landscape.
To enter the hall, visitors move down steps located under the park.
![Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Center by Approach Design has a green roof with a running track](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/hangzhou-cloud-town-exhibition-centre-approach-design-sports-park-green-roof-china_dezeen_2364_col_20-852x479.jpg)
This downwards-facing entrance was a deliberate move away from the "ceremonial steps" upwards that the architects felt were often used for convention centres.
![Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Center by Approach Design has a green roof with a running track](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/hangzhou-cloud-town-exhibition-centre-approach-design-sports-park-green-roof-china_dezeen_2364_col_16-852x639.jpg)
"We first decided to reduce the building's huge size, compressing this 66,000 square metre megastructure to just 6.6 metres above ground, giving it as low a profile as possible and attracting people to approach it," added Approach Design.
"It presents itself as a huge low rooftop covered in a lawn."
![Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Center by Approach Design has a green roof with a running track](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/hangzhou-cloud-town-exhibition-centre-approach-design-sports-park-green-roof-china_dezeen_2364_col_3-852x1274.jpg)
"All around the building sit a multitude of gentle grassy slopes – the whole roof appears an extension of the horizon and openly welcomes people to walk on it," added the studio.
A similar concept was recently used by Shanghai practice Open Architecture at TANK Shanghai, where a rolling green landscape conceals gallery spaces below, while Google plans to put an outdoor running track on the roof of its London headquarters.
![Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Center by Approach Design has a green roof with a running track](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/hangzhou-cloud-town-exhibition-centre-approach-design-sports-park-green-roof-china_dezeen_2364_col_28-852x554.jpg)
The park at the Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Centre provides various facilities such as a football field, watchtower, sand pit, studio theatre and community vegetable garden, connected by a 760-metre running track, which protrudes slightly on an elevated walkway.
At one end, a freight ramp leading down to the centre has been used to create a faceted slope designed to encourage skateboarding.
![Hangzhou Cloud Town Exhibition Center by Approach Design has a green roof with a running track](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2019/04/hangzhou-cloud-town-exhibition-centre-approach-design-sports-park-green-roof-china_dezeen_2364_col_30-852x555.jpg)
While driven by a need for additional conference space, Approach Architects also wanted to provide a space that could offer more to the nearby community.
When not in use, the vast exhibition space can be converted into a "sports warehouse" for basketball, badminton and tennis.
Photography is by Lianping Mao.
Project credits:
Design: Approach design (ZUP)
Chief architect: Ma Di
Design team: Jin Xin, Mao Liaoping, Jiang Sheng, Zhang Jialiang, Shen Weifen, Wang Yang, Mao Mengjun