The mighty engines of F1 racing cars parallel China's recent explosive growth. So it's appropriate that as the country's development surges powerfully ahead, China has built a world-class motorsports track: the Shanghai International F1 Circuit. Created under the guidance of well-known circuit architects Hermann Tilke and Peter Wahl, it surpasses in size every other facility in the F1 World Championship series, with a 5.45-kilometer track, a five-square-kilometer entertainment complex, and seating for 200,000. And talk about fast -- it was built in just 18 months, beginning in April 2003 and hosting its inaugural race in September 2004.

According to Tilke and Wahl, the track's design evokes the Chinese character "shang," which stands for "high" or "above." It is also the root of the name Shanghai, a name that literally means "above the ocean." The architects took inspiration from Chinese history for other elements of the complex, arranging team buildings like pavilions in a lake "to resemble the ancient Yuyan-Garden in Shanghai."

The scale of the project was astounding. Located in marshy ground near the Yangtze River delta, the team had to support the foundations with two million cubic meters of earth material, 40,000 concrete reinforcing pillars, and 320,000 cubic meters of EPS engineering plastics (half the annual consumption of Japan).

The project features an impressive series of concrete and steel structures (using 12,000 metric tons of steel), including the grandstands; an administrative building and race control tower; living and working facilities for teams; and energy, maintenance, and emergency infrastructure, more than 150,000 square meters in all. Twenty-six lotus-leaf "membrane structure" canopies stand among the circuit's most striking architectural elements. Covering an area of 750 square meters each, they shade the secondary stands and are a hallmark of its design.

Luxalon metal ceilings and honeycomb panels from Hunter Douglas were specified for many of the buildings, giving them a beautifully uniform metallic skin. Installed by Shanghai Gaoxin Aluminum Engineering Company, the panels are most prominent on the huge expanses of the grandstands and curved undercanopy of the race control tower. Lightweight, easy to maintain, and highly durable, they represented an ideal solution for the exposed structures.

The Shanghai International F1 Circuit was intended to pique the interest of the Chinese and establish a beachhead for the sport in the world's biggest market. But the circuit's striking design -- and its carefully crafted combinations of turns and straightaways -- seem to have captured the imaginations of race fans around the globe.