When the 14th FINA World Championships in swimming were held in Shanghai in 2011, a new sports center, comprising a sports stadium, a swimming stadium, an outdoor swimming pool for platform diving competitions, and a media center, were built on a surface area of over 347,000 square meters. An artificial lake is the connecting element between the various stadia. The buildings stand on plateaux that protrude into the lake. This forms a gently curved bank around the round stadia, and a straight edge in the south for the outdoor swimming pool.