HIT Media (Text and Photos: School of Civil Engineering)
The China Civil Engineering Society has announced its decision to confer the 21st China Civil Engineering Zhan Tianyou Award.
The Dalian Barracuda Bay Professional Football Stadium project, for which the award application was led by Professor Fan Feng from the School of Civil Engineering at Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT), received the Zhan Tianyou Award.
The China Civil Engineering Zhan Tianyou Award is a national award program established with the approval of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council. It is presented every three years, with no more than 100 projects receiving the award in each cycle.
Closely aligned with national strategic priorities, the award promotes innovation in engineering science and technology and focuses on green and low-carbon development, intelligent construction, and sustainable development. It is regarded as the highest national award for engineering and technological innovation in China's civil engineering sector.
A total of 35 projects in the building category received the award this cycle, with the Dalian Barracuda Bay Professional Football Stadium being the only award-winning project in this category from Northeast China.
Located in Ganjingzi district, Dalian city, the Dalian Barracuda Bay Professional Football Stadium is China's only extra-large-scale professional football stadium with a capacity of 63,000 people, with the sea on three sides and designed to meet FIFA's highest standards. It has a total gross floor area of 136,000 square meters. Construction began in March 2021, and the stadium was completed and became operational in April 2023.
To address the distinctive architectural and structural features of the project, Professor Fan Feng's team worked with China Construction Eighth Engineering Division and other project partners to conduct a series of research and engineering innovation efforts, resulting in four key technological innovations.
These were, namely, the development of the world's first "upper-layer grid, lower-layer spoke-type" double-layer cable structure system, featuring a roof span of 253.5 meters and using just 19.95 kilograms of cable per square meter; the invention of an alternating tensioning and lifting technology for spoke-type cable structures, through which a cable net weighing more than 2,600 metric tons was lifted, setting a world record; the development of a hyperbolic skewed cable-membrane curtain wall system using nine types of blue ETFE membrane to evoke the shimmering appearance of ocean waves, with the largest such coverage area of any professional football stadium in the world; and finally, the adoption of green and low-carbon construction practices, reducing carbon emissions by more than 20 percent compared with similar venues.
Since it was completed and opened, the stadium has become a new landmark in Dalian and a prominent symbol of this "Football City". During the 2026 Chinese Super League, average attendance exceeded 60,000 per match.
In recent years, the HIT Space Structure Research Center, led by Professor Fan under the guidance of Academician Shen Shizhao, has been dedicated to fundamental research into long-span space structures and pioneering engineering innovation. The center has taken the lead in undertaking a number of major national research projects. It has completed more than 100 projects involving innovative structural systems and key technological advances in space-structure engineering. These include the active reflector structure of the 500-meter Aperture Spherical Radio Telescope (FAST), a major national scientific facility; the Ice Sports Center for the 13th National Winter Games; and sports venues for the Harbin Asian Winter Games.
In 2026, the center received the honorary title of "National Worker Pioneer" from the All-China Federation of Trade Unions. The latest award, however, marks the second time that a project undertaken by the HIT Space Structure Research Center has received the China Civil Engineering Zhan Tianyou Award, following the Harbin International Sports and Exhibition Center's receipt of the sixth award in 2006.
An aerial view of the completed stadium. [Photo/hit.edu.cn]
A side elevation of the completed stadium. [Photo/hit.edu.cn]
An interior view of the completed stadium. [Photo/hit.edu.cn]
A wind tunnel test of a scale model of the stadium. [Photo/hit.edu.cn]
A tensioning and shape-forming test of a scale model of the roof cable structure. [Photo/hit.edu.cn]
Edited by: Liu Peixiang
Reviewed by: Song Ling, Li Shoubin, Yang Wenyu