ARCHITECTURE
AFL ARCHITECTS
Phil Osbourne, director
What new projects
have you been
working on?
Over the last
year or so we’ve
increasingly
been asked to
engage in some
fairly substantial
stadium design
competitions and
soccer related projects
in China. Our team has already
been working over there for the
past three years, so as we’ve
become more visible we’ve been
seeing some positive results.
The profi le of our projects started
off with smaller clients and soccer
training grounds, but these have
now graduated to internationallyrecognized
clubs. We’re currently
participating in a design
competition for a major new
stadium, which is still ongoing.
We’re down to the fi nal few from
a very big fi eld.
Have you encountered any
particular challenges?
These projects have all been very
interesting, although quite a
challenge because China has a
different perception to the western
world of what constitutes a soccer
stadium. However, it has been an
educational process for both us and
our Chinese clients as we are able
to inform what makes an
appropriate venue for a soccer
match rather than a generalized,
multi-use stadium, which is what
was typically built in the country.
The Chinese are now very keen
on the British model of getting the
crowd as close to the pitch as
possible. They are also learning
about the corporate offer, which
until recently has been overlooked
as most stadia have been owned by
cities and governments, rather than
the clubs themselves.
We’re seeing clients now very
focused on getting the most out of
a stadium, so we are being
encouraged to mix it up with other
uses, such as retail. However, they
don’t tend to want multi-sport,
so that means no running tracks
around the pitch like the old
European model.
How have current world
events affected your projects?
We’ve got a number of projects onthe
go in China, but banks have
been shut down so we are
monitoring the situation and
adapting where necessary. For
future projects, there could be a
great detrimental effect for many
companies, especially those out of
country like us, as the Chinese take
a personal approach to projects and
strongly value face-to-face contact
during the process. With limited or
no international travel, this makes
things very diffi cult and will
inevitably have a signifi cant effect
on business in China.
Otherwise, we’ve developed a
very strong relationship with the UK
government’s Department of
International Trade. They’ve been
very good at supporting us in our
engagement with Chinese clients.
Confi dential Stadium, China
22 www.stadia-magazine.com March 2020
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