Discover Eastern Design's New Approach to the Simple Box Architecture

During the 2008 Beijing Olympic Wrestling competition, a 10,000-person capacity architecture (with a total floor area of 30,000m2) was used for the Olympic Games. Now, at its place, an ongoing project is worked on, for the Chinese Agriculture University. The project is lead by two teams, EASTERN design office and KAWAGUCHI & ENGINEERS. The teams' mission is to take out the 4,000 temporary seats and refit the interior with three arenas, a pool, and 6000 seats, which will transform the space into a gymnasium complex. Continue reading to discover how they've played with the universal simple box design.



The planning of this architecture is based on a simple rectangular, so that it is easy to convert interior space into other functions. It is a universal design. Its simple rectangular planning fits justly with a characteristic of a wrestling court, moreover for a swimming pool. According to EASTERN design, there is no lost space in this planning. It enables easy functional conversion after the Olympics. And it is profitable economically, as it is used for various usage as a multifunctional gymnasium.

The gymnasium's rectangular body (volume of 144m x 90m x 19m) optimizes efficient use of the whole interior space. The teams' grand planning achieves reduced underground volume and an efficient cost planning with rationalized structural spans. It enables a symbolic character, within a remitted total budget. The “Light Thread”, that brings the architecture its characteristics, spreads randomly from wall to roof, from roof to wall and from wall to wall. It is a new approach to the simple box architecture.

Here are the Images and Drawings of the Light Thread


The images were taken by Koichi Torimrua

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