Welcoming

The new Xi’an Inter­na­tional Foot­ball Centre will be 60,000-seat stadium for national and inter­na­tional matches as well as dome­stic league games, youth trai­ning acade­mies, enter­tain­ment perfor­mances and cultural events. The centre will be located in Xi’an’s Feng­dong New District with its stations on the city’s expan­ding metro network.

With a popu­la­tion of nine million people and two profes­sional foot­ball clubs, Xi’an will be a host city of the 2023 Asian Foot­ball Confe­de­ra­tion (AFC) Asian Cup in China. Taking its legacy mode of opera­tions as the starting point of the design, the stadium has been desi­gned to provide optimum condi­tions for foot­ball and maxi­mize its use by gene­ra­tions after the 2023 tour­na­ment.

The design employs an ultra-light­weight long span cable-net roof struc­ture, resul­ting in a minimum load and mate­rial foot­print that in turn reduces the stadium’s primary struc­ture. Wide peri­meter roof over­hangs shelter faci­li­ties within the building’s enve­lope while the large, shaded, open-air terraces and public concourses incor­po­rates exten­sive plan­ting on all levels, provi­ding comfor­table condi­tions in Xi’an’s hot conti­nental summer climate.

Supported by the tensioned cable-net struc­ture, a trans­lu­cent membrane over the seating protects spec­ta­tors from incle­ment weather and direct sunlight while also allo­wing the most amount of natural light to reach the playing surface, promo­ting the growth of grass on the pitch to provide playing condi­tions of the highest stan­dard.