The Greater Bay Area Sports Center opens its doors to the public

The Greater Bay Area Sports Center opens the door for its first major public events in December 2025, launching with a series of concerts across the 700,000-sq. m complex designed by Zaha Hadid Architects. Commissioned through an international competition in 2023 and developed in collaboration with the Guangdong Architectural Design & Research Institute, the Greater Bay Area Sports Centre establishes a new urban heart for Guangzhou’s Nansha District.

The centre offers its local community sports facilities of the highest standards, but can also host a diverse programme of major national and international sporting and cultural events. The centre can be accessed easily by all communities from across the interconnected cities of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macau;  an urban region set to reach 100 million residents by 2030. 

Greater Bay Area Sports Center: tradition and innovation

Rising on the western bank of the Pearl River Delta, the project brings together a 60,000-seat stadium, a 20,000-seat indoor arena, and a 4,000-seat aquatic centre. The major venues are surrounded by a network of outdoor training pitches, running tracks, and dedicated accommodation for athletes. Many of these spaces are used daily by Nansha’s schools and local sports clubs, while being part of China’s broader sports development programmes at both regional and national levels

The sports centre is designed as a place where community participation and professional training coexist. By offering accessible, high-quality facilities, it encourages young people to engage with sport while providing elite athletes with the infrastructure needed for competition. Nansha’s warm winters reinforce this ambition, creating favourable year-round outdoor training conditions that help create long-term athletic development and healthy habits.

Climatic responsiveness and maritime identity

Set within Guangdong’s subtropical monsoon climate, the waterfront park plays an active role in the district’s flood-protection strategy, integrating wetlands that absorb excess water during periods of extreme sea-level fluctuation. Against this landscape, the architecture is shaped by a dialogue between heritage and performance.

The curved profiles of the buildings recall the tapered hulls of Song-Dynasty sailing vessels that once defined the Pearl River’s maritime identity, while the layered rooflines subtly evoke the folds of traditional silk fans. These cultural cues are reinterpreted with a contemporary clarity, grounding the project in its regional context.

Climatic responsiveness is central to the design. Rooting on principles from Lingnan vernacular architecture, the buildings incorporate shaded terraces, deep overhangs, and naturally ventilated semi-outdoor spaces. Vertical louvres, refined through advanced digital simulations, maximise shading and harness prevailing winds from the South China Sea. In the main stadium, a grand riverside arch channels cooler air into the seating bowl and frames wide views across the water, enhancing comfort during humid summer months.

A new gateway for the Greater Bay Area

At the core of the project is a 60,000-seat stadium with an adaptable seating bowl that can be reconfigured to suit a wide range of sporting events, maintaining clear sightlines and an engaging atmosphere throughout the year. The stadium also transforms into a venue for cultural performances; the bowl rotates to face a dedicated riverside stage, with the sweeping arch forming a dramatic backdrop that strengthens the visual connection with the reiver.

With its blend of cultural resonance, environmental performance, and architectural ambition, the project stands as a new gateway to Guangzhou and a model for large-scale urban architecture in one of the world’s most dynamic regions.

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