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Kai Tak Sports Park

The old Kai Tak Airport was a thrilling proposition for pilots and passengers alike, with flight paths that skimmed Hong Kong rooftops and a runway that stretched out into Kowloon Bay. More than 25 years after the last flight departed, one of the dense city’s prime harbourfront locations has found a new purpose.

Kai Tak Sports Park has officially opened its doors in March, bolstering the local government’s bid to become the “events capital of Asia”. Set against the backdrop of Kowloon’s majestic Lion Rock, this new sports, entertainment and leisure precinct was designed by Populous, the award-winning architecture firm behind high-profile projects such as London’s Wembley Stadium and the Las Vegas Sphere. Facilities across the 28-hectare site include a 5,000-seat Youth Sports Ground, a multipurpose indoor arena with 10,000 mostly retractable or removable seats, plenty of retail space and F&B options, and the park’s crown jewel: a 50,000-seat main stadium inspired by Hong Kong’s nickname, the Pearl of the Orient.

To translate this wondrous title into a physical structure, Populous created a pearlescent façade with 27,000 panels that reflect the light and, when viewed from different angles, shift from purple to cobalt blue. A retractable, soundproof roof can be opened in 20-30 minutes, while a flexible pitch system has natural and artificial surfaces.

Crucially, Kai Tak Sports Park is more than just a stage for international events. Its purpose extends into the neighbourhoods of Kowloon City, To Kwa Wan and Kai Tak, where new private residences and public housing have already popped up. Landscaped gardens, paths and playgrounds provide residents with an oasis in which to escape from the bustle of the surrounding metropolis.

Populous Design Lead
Richard Breslin

Where do you start designing a 28-hectare site?
We spent several months doing background research and an assessment of what such a precinct meant in the context of Kai Tak and Kowloon Bay, as well as what it meant more broadly for Hong Kong and Asia. Hong Kong has a very special relationship with its harbour, so we started to look at introducing these design tools and mechanisms to draw people through that precinct.

The park sits on the site of the old airport. How did you incorporate that history into your design?
Kai Tak precinct is hugely important for that whole southeast China region: the trade, the history and so forth. So we’ve designed a very strong art and cultural programme. There’s an old red-and-white-checked PARB (precision approach radar building) that was overgrown and falling apart but we included it in the site. It now has a model of the old airport and a water play area for kids next to it. There are similar sites throughout the precinct.

The main stadium is the centrepiece of the park. What design features are you most proud of?
The element that excites us is the seating bowl. During Hong Kong Sevens, it goes crazy in the south stand of the old stadium. That’s the heartbeat, where the most colourful characters are. We wanted to recreate that, so the new stadium has a 5,000-seat south stand.

Was there a degree of benchmarking involved?
For the roof, we looked at Marvel Stadium in Melbourne and Principality Stadium in Cardiff. For the seating bowl, Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane was one, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London was another. We did a tour with the client in 2019. They wanted to understand these places and it makes our jobs a lot easier if we can take them. So it’s benchmarking in a way, but it’s actually beyond that. It’s about giving people a common understanding of the principles that we’re working towards.