Dynamic Design: 6 Gold-Standard Sports Spaces Leading the Field

These innovative facilities are moving the goalposts for sports architecture.

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Sports venue commissions give scope for extraordinary creativity — so much so that in the hands of skilled architects, they can transcend their fabric to become regional or even global landmarks. Think Zaha Hadid Architect’s expressive Al Janoub Stadium in Qatar or Paris’s Tennis De La Cavalerie, with its magnificent timber diagrid roof.

Yet sports spaces are far more than just centers of spectacle or physical activity. Their modern iterations are multifaceted, embodying diverse programs. They’re bustling social hubs that shape their locales and draw communities together — places of exertion, inspiration and connection.

While it may feel like a familiar typology, architects continue to evolve and reinvent the remit of our sporting venues. Mindful of environmental context, inclusivity and multifunctionality, these winning projects from the 11^th A+Awards are moving the goalposts for sports architecture…

Lisa & Douglas Goldman Tennis Center (with HGA)

By EHDD, San Francisco, California

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Sustainable Sports & Recreation Building

Nestled in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, this site has been home to public tennis courts since 1894. In its storied history, legends such as Billie Jean King and Brad Gilbert honed their games here, a legacy that the center’s latest iteration skillfully preserves. The new clubhouse and refurbished amenities pay homage to the past, while providing state-of-the-art recreation spaces for the local community.

The clubhouse itself is low and unimposing in form, designed to slot comfortably into the surrounding park without disrupting the landscape. The sleek building was conceived as a gateway to the main event. Swaths of glass envelop the structure’s eastern aspect, revealing unimpeded views over the tennis courts. Tiered bench seating for spectators is built into the concrete perimeter that frames the renovated courts. This revival of a hallowed sporting site has been sensitively negotiated.

Lusail Stadium

By Foster + Partners, Lusail, Qatar

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Stadium & Arena

From a modest community complex to a show-stopping monolith, this astonishing arena was the key venue for 2022’s FIFA World Cup in Qatar. The dazzling centerpiece of Lusail City, a new metropolis still under development, the striking design is enveloped in an ornate diagrid skin. Within the complex surface, triangular perforations filter dappled light onto the concourse within.

Inside, the 80,000-seat stadium is presided over by an open, cable-net roof with an extraordinary, elliptical aperture. The structure’s outer compression ring is connected to a central tension ring via an intricate cable system, reinforcing the expansive roof without the need for column supports. Astonishing in scale, the magnificent seating bowl below is a vast vessel for spectators, its neutral, sand hue a counterpoint to the multicolored sea of team shirts.

Notre-Dame College Gymnasium

By ACDF Architecture, Montreal, Canada

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Gyms & Recreation Centers

Embodying the values of Collège Notre-Dame, which is committed to nurturing the intellectual and physical faculties of its students, this new athletics center sits at the heart of the campus. At street level, the streamlined rectangular façade is undercut by sweeping, curvilinear glazed walls, which soften the building’s sharp angles.

Two gymnasiums are located on the lower floor, at the same level as the adjacent sports field. In one of the halls, a ribbon of clerestory windows draws the leafy, green surrounds inside. It’s clear that square footage has been thoughtfully utilized — an indoor athletics track runs around the gymnasiums, offering views of both the city street outside and down into the athletics spaces. Elsewhere, multifunctional zones at opposing ends of the complex diversify the project’s functionality.

Asian Games 2022 Hybrid Stadium

By Archi-Tectonics NYC, LLC, Hangzhou, China

Jury Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Architecture +Innovation

Looming over a 116-acre eco-park in Hangzhou, the Hybrid Stadium was designed as a sports venue for the 2022 Asian Games. Its unusual form, adorned in brass shingle cladding and a glass diagrid, was modeled after the Chinese cong, an ancient jade artifact with a tubular shape and a circular bore. The architects channeled this ancient inspiration into a parametric design that can accommodate diverse events, increasing the project’s utility beyond the Asian Games.

A lightweight suspen-dome roof rests on the building’s inner bowl. Natural light and ventilation pour into the arena via an ingenious ring of windows and a central skylight. Meanwhile, the stadium’s seating plan ensures future flexibility. Oval stadium seating fuses with a traditional amphitheater arrangement, creating a truly hybrid space that can be repurposed for concerts and performances.

Community Swimming Pool, Châteaulin

By Debuisson, Châteaulin, France

Popular Choice Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Gyms & Recreation Centers

This astonishing public swimming pool is embedded into the slope of a rural site in north-western France. Minimizing the impact of the building on the surrounding terrain was of the utmost importance to the architects. Consequently, fully glazed walls define the center’s circular geometry. Rather than opaque and obstructive, the structure is a transparent conduit that allows the organic landscape to shine through.

The project’s environmental context is placed center stage for its spatial users too, the rolling fields blurring with the watery world within. Envisaged as a ribbon wrapped around itself, the complex unfurls vertically. The various levels are playfully united by a slide that snakes around the hall’s perimeter, before arriving at the pool level. Here is a scheme that’s as mindful of its context, as it is of its inner programming.

The Hangzhou Asian Games Baseball and Softball Sports Cultural Center

By The Architectural Design & Research Institute of Zhejiang University Co., Ltd.(UAD), Shaoxing, China

Popular Choice Winner, 11^th Annual A+Awards, Stadium & Arena

Another key site in the 2022 Asian Games, hosted in Hangzhou, this futuristic development is the largest baseball and softball center in China. The complex is spread across two sites — the first features a 10,000-seat baseball stadium, while the second encompasses a 2,500-seat venue, a training gym and a hotel.

Unlike traditional sports venues, this pioneering project is accessible to the general public. There are no walls controlling entry to the center, instead, it’s designed as a sports and culture park for the community to enjoy. A whimsical, cloud-like roof, comprising a PTFE membrane, shelters the open structures, which carve out pedestrian thoroughfares. The rhythms of daily life collide with the athletics field, creating a truly inclusive environment.

Lisa & Douglas Goldman Tennis Center (with HGA)

By EHDD, San Francisco, California

Jury Winner, 11th Annual A+Awards, Sustainable Sports & Recreation Building

Lusail Stadium

By Foster + Partners, Lusail, Qatar

Jury Winner, 11th Annual A+Awards, Stadium & Arena