Sino-French Eco-City Culture & Sports Center武汉中法生态城文体中心

The Sino-French Wuhan Eco-City Culture & Sports Center sits in Caidian, western Wuhan, between Qinrun Avenue and the Gaoluo River wetland park, on the very edge where city meets nature. On a 64,507 m² site, the 83,431 m² complex pairs a culture center to the west (theater, library, science museum and cultural center) with a sports center to the east (basketball arena, natatorium, multi-purpose hall and e-sports arena), linked by a bridge. Atelier Alter won the design competition with first prize in 2021; construction began in March 2022.

Rather than an isolated object, the building is conceived as a large-scale ecological stitch that carries the wetland habitat into the urban frontage. Parametric façades and roofs become a landscape of alternating hard and soft surfaces. A continuous rooftop park adds an outdoor theater, a roller-skating ground, an art market and a bird-watching deck over the wetland, while a slow route joins park and city and connects to the indoor arts promenade that strings the main halls together. Indoor and outdoor activity flow into one another and out into both the natural and the urban landscape.

The design also answers Caidian's legend of Boya and Ziqi, the archetype of “zhiyin” friendship, and Wuhan's place as a cradle of Chu culture. The forms and patterns of Chu bronze vessels are translated into the spatial language of plan and section; celadon-green granite, marble, terrazzo, ceramic and luminous tiles collage the hard surfaces, threaded with grasses and shrubs that merge with the wetland, so that history returns in digital form and shifts with the seasons. The project is designed to China's Three-Star Green Building and France's HQE standards.