Xi’an International Football Centre

Located in Xi’an, the project reconsiders the contemporary football stadium as a piece of urban infrastructure, shifting it from an event-driven, inward-focused venue into an open, civic-oriented environment. Rather than functioning solely during match days, the stadium is designed to operate as a continuous public resource, extending its spatial and social value to the surrounding city.
Conventional stadium design often prioritizes operational efficiency, security, and commercial performance, while the presence of spectators as active urban participants remains largely overlooked. As a result, stadiums frequently become isolated megastructures—intensely activated during events yet dormant and disconnected from daily urban life. This project challenges that paradigm by redefining the relationship between the stadium, its users, and the city.
The design strategy begins with a systematic reduction of the stadium’s perceived scale. By sinking the lower seating tiers below ground level, the overall height is significantly reduced, allowing the building to integrate more seamlessly with its surroundings. A ring of commercial and public spaces is introduced around the stadium, connected by a continuous canopy that establishes a transitional interface between the arena and the city. Internally, non-essential programmatic elements are minimized to reduce spatial thickness, while a layered façade system breaks down the mass into smaller, human-scaled components.
Equally important is the activation of the stadium beyond match-day use. The surrounding public realm is designed as a semi-open plaza that supports everyday activities and informal gatherings. During events, the boundary between inside and outside is intentionally softened: porous ground-level openings allow sound and movement to spill outward, while selective visual connections enable partial views into the stadium from adjacent spaces. These strategies extend the atmosphere of the event beyond the seating bowl, transforming the surrounding urban area into an active participant in the spectacle.
By integrating spatial permeability, programmatic hybridity, and urban connectivity, the project redefines the football stadium as an open civic platform. It proposes a shift from a closed, monumental object to a dynamic and inclusive urban system, capable of supporting both collective events and everyday public life.