National Oval Speed Skating – Beijing 2022

The new construction is located in the Olympic Forest Park, next to Yangshan, the main sea gate of the city of Beijing. Along with the National Stadium and the National Aquatic Center, it is one of the iconic buildings symbolizing the new Beijing. Designed to incarnate a high symbol, the building is the result of a sustainable design, whose use is to extend far beyond the duration of the games. 

The building is equipped with a Serge Ferrari SK 20 membrane, ultra-resistant and above all, incombustible, used here for its acoustic properties and its thermal performance. For this atypical project, Serge Ferrari gathered the testimony of Mr. Zheng Fang, deputy chief architect of the Beijing Institute of Design and Architectural Research and designer of the national speed skating ring.

What mission was entrusted to you?

'I initiated and developed the concept for the international design competition in 2016, and then worked as chief architect all through the design process, including the schematic design, design development and construction design.'

What were the constraints encountered?

'The speed skating oval has an enormous interior space to fit in the 400 meter-long track and the spectator stand. The crucial challenge is to reduce the interior volume to save energy.'

What your projects consists of? Why did you choose tense architecture for this type of work? 

'The center of the roof is limited to only 20 meters high above the ice, while the edge of the roof above  the spectator stand rise to more than 30 meters. As a result I created a saddle roof rising from an ellipse plan to achieve a compact competition hall.'

'I had to limit the height of the whole building so that it would be lower than the hill which is the highest point in the city. The height of the structure is much lower, for a better integration into the landscape. I think that the lightness of the structure is one of the main orientations of the future architecture.'

What criteria did you use for the choice of materials? Why did you choose the Serge Ferrari frabrics? 

'Many technical and aesthetic constraints have oriented our choice of materials :
The smooth and flat surface of the glass produces a unique mirror effect.  In order to reduce the heat radiation from the roof to the ice surface and to save the energy needed for the production of the ice, the reflective ceiling provides another mirror surface. The energy-saving reflective ceiling is used as a feature of the ice rink to develop an expressive visual image of the large space. It is the most appropriate concept for the ice rink. The low radiation ceiling has already proven itself at the Sochi Winter games and the speed skating oval in Inzell, Germany.

Low-emissivity ceilings have little heat loss, and the surface temperature can generally be maintained above the dew point temperature, thus avoiding the risk of condensation. Serge Ferrari developed the aluminum-clad membrane with an emissivity of less than 0.3, which achieved both the energy-saving objective and the architectural visual intent. Moreover, according to the local fire code, the ceiling material must be classified as Class A fire, and this membrane is. At the same time, the high sound absorption performance of Serge Ferrari's membrane made it possible to control the reverberation time of the enormous space.

Finally, the construction schedule is always very tight for any venue. The tension structure membrane can be fabricated in the factory and installed on site very quickly to cover a large area of the roof.
All this makes the Serge Ferrari fabrics the best choice for this project.'

Any last word ?

'I wanted people to enjoy this vast space, with its dynamic curves and a fantastic mirror image reflected from both the ice and the ceiling. The bet is successful.'