Floating Beach Basketball Court in CITY-POP Vision

FLO

Short description

The design embraces hedonism City-Pop concept, aiming to transform the rooftop into a city hotspot. “Dark days are over, and the illusion of better living is right in front of us ". Through our study, we devised a place-making strategy to design sense of belonging that further promotes public participation and active engagement of our users. It’s not merely a sports ground, but a new trending city icon that celebrates sports and culture.

City youngsters nowadays have abundant material wealth to further pursue care-free lifestyles. They are relieved from material anxiety and become spiritually free to explore gratifications beyond realism. This is also the portrait of China’s contemporary youngsters. Urban place-making should be a reflection of social change and behaviors. We feel strongly about creating a public realm that is a contemporary reflection of today’s millennial age.

We proposed basketball as the primary attractor because it is the most popular sport in China. Provision of a new basketball court is a strong benefit to a growing city like Wuhan, and it is also an engaging team sport that’s fun to watch. We put forward "sport + spectator + photo-taking" participatory model. At the ‘main stage’, we designed a court that caters for "competitive basketball lovers" to attract real ballers of Wuhan. Centered around the focal activity of basketball, we then created spectator space and floating runways that provide sightline interaction for others that enjoy game-watching. At the periphery, we also designated a series of photo-taking spots to attract curiosity youngsters.

Here, we aspire our visitors to participate in the highest level of streetball competition, but also enjoy an immersive holiday getaway experience. The addition of palm trees and shading devices around the court further renders a somewhat surreal space, providing a haven for escapes from the city’s hectic daily life.