Danish design firms doing Olympic stadiums in China 

As the only Danish companies COWI in joint venture with AA Arkitekter have pre-qualified for the design competition for the National Tennis Centre and Hockey Stadium in Beijing. The two new sports venues, to be completed for the Olympics in 2008, will accommodate a total of 42,000 spectators – eight times more than Århus Arena, a major Danish sports stadium project that COWI was recently involved in.

The Danish team is one of eight pre-qualifiers out of an initial field of more than 30 competing teams. In June the field will be narrowed down to three, with the winner named soon afterwards.

COWI market director Peter Terman Petersen points out that in addition to the group's relevant experience, the pre-qualification could well be attributable to Chinese satisfaction with the good communication with COWI’s Chinese speaking staff. Not to mention that the competition organizers have been positively surprised at the efficiency of the Danes. The Danish team only had four days to meet the deadline for submitting the required pre-qualification material in both English and Chinese.

A little bit of luck

"We have pre-qualified because we have made a major effort and can show impeccable references. But a little bit of luck was involved, too,” smiles Peter Terman Petersen.

"Things have worked out for us. If we had not reacted promptly and if COWI’s managing director had not recently been in China spreading the word about COWI, then things might not have gone so well. Another contributory factor may even have been the publicity surrounding the Hans Christian Andersen Year in China.”

COWI, the leading partner in the joint venture with AA Arkitekter, can draw on extensive previous experience of large stadium projects in Denmark, including Århus Stadium and Arena, Odense Ice-Hockey Stadium and Forum Horsens, a cultural and sports complex that can accommodate 4,500 spectators.

By: Christina Tækker, cht@cowi.com
Published: 17.03.2004