News:Zaha Hadid Architects has unveiled its design for the first of several new stadiums that will hold football matches during the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Despite efforts to move the international football tournament to the winter, Zaha Hadid Architects is working alongside architecture and engineering firm AECOM to design a 40,000-seat venue that will be suitable for use during Qatar’s hot summer climate.
The stadium will be located in Al Wakrah, the southern-most city hosting the tournament. It is the first of up to nine stadiums that could be constructed in Qatari cities, with five expected to start on site next year.
According to project director Jim Heverin, the shape of the stadium will be based on the curved form of the Dhow – a type of Arabian fishing boat that can often be spotted at the town’s harbour.
This form will give the structure a curving roof intended to shield both players and spectators from the intense desert sunshine, which can cause temperatures to exceed beyond 50 degrees.
The architects also plan to combine mechanical air-conditioning with passive design principles to keep temperatures below 30 degrees.
During the tournament the venue will accommodate 40,000 spectators, but this will be reduced to 20,000 once the competition is over. Left-over seats will then be removed and shipped to developing countries.
The setting for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio will be a lagoon-side peninsula with 15 sports venues dotted along a network of snaking pathways, as detailed in this new set of visuals by masterplanners AECOM (+ slideshow).
Located on a flat triangular site in the city’s Barra da Tijuca district, the main Olympic park will centre itself around a trio of existing stadiums leftover from the 2007 Pan-American Games, which were constructed over a Formula One racetrack from the 1970s.
AECOM plans to transform the peninsula into a tropical landscape that reflects the mountains and valleys of the Brazilian coastline, including gently sloping hills and curving pathways. Venues will be lined up on either side of a black-and-white striped central axis, winding like a river from the site entrance to the waterfront.
Seven new stadiums will be constructed on the site. London studio AndArchitects is collaborating with Rio office Lopes, Santos & Ferreira Gomes on the handball arena, which will be dismantled after the games and used to build four new schools.
UK firm 3DReid is teaming up with Rio studio BLAC Architects to renovate the existing Velodrome, while the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre will be reused for swimming and diving events, and the HSBC Stadium will host gymnastics.
A waterfront lawn will allow up to 12,000 spectators to watch the action on big screens and an AECOM-designed broadcast centre will accommodate around 20,000 international journalists.
“This is such a high profile and complex project for AECOM, which brings many exciting opportunities and challenges,” commented the firm’s Jason Prior. “We are drawing on our experience from being masterplanners of the London Olympics to take the design of the Rio venues and park even further, which will hopefully be reflected in the end result in 2016.”
Alongside Barra da Tijuca, events for the games will also take place at Copacabana, Maracanã and Deodoro, where the National Shooting Centre is already in place.
In 2011, AECOM won Brazil’fs first international architecture competition to design the masterplan for Rio’s 2016 Olympic Park, making it the first company to design the parks for two consecutive Olympic and Paralympic Games Parks – London in 2012 and Rio in 2016.
In Rio, AECOM has taken on an even larger role than it had on the 2012 Games, with responsibility for the preliminary design of the seven sporting venues as well as the detailed design of the International Broadcast Centre. This is in addition to the architectural, masterplanning, landscaping, engineering, cost consultancy, project management, sustainability and transportation strategy design services that it also provided in London.
Site masterplan – 2016
Set in one of the most beautiful areas on Earth, AECOM’s masterplan takes its inspiration from the dramatic natural setting of Rio. Located on a former Formula 1 race track in Barra da Tijuca, the main Olympic park sits on a triangular space with water on either side. During Games time, at the southern peninsula of the site there will be an entertainment area for around 12,000 people to watch the events on big screens.
The park’s design draws from the Atlantica Forrest that surrounds Rio de Janeiro. This context provides the conceptual inspiration and influences the architecture and landscape design as will the Brazilian culture and strong design heritage. The masterplan sets out to respect and reinforce the balance between native ecology, the city and its people while delivering the platform for sporting excellence.
Site masterplan – 2018
Every Olympics needs to reflect the character and ambitions of the host city and this is where the differences between the two parks are most pronounced. While London was about demonstrating how a short global event can lead to the long term regeneration of one of the most neglected and deprived areas of the city, Rio is about celebrating Brazil’s emergence as a world power as well as making sure there is a strong legacy plan in place.
Throughout the development of the Rio masterplan, you can see how AECOM has been applying the lessons learnt from working on London 2012. This includes working with the wide range of stakeholders and local communities, and the utilisation of its knowledge of the requirements for running such a huge event, from crowd management and traffic strategies, to meeting the needs of athletes, visitors and the extended Olympic management and support system.
Site masterplan – 2030
The vision for the future is not just to create a global stage for the Olympic and Paralympic Games of 2016, but also, in the longer term, to create a new legacy district with new homes, jobs and places for leisure activities with a new central park and a thriving beautiful waterfront. It is also set to become a global centre of sporting excellence, with a Legacy Olympic Training Centre utilising the Games’ permanent sporting venues.
After the Games, the site will evolve into a compact urban environment built around a network of streets and open spaces, which encourages a diverse mix of living, working and recreational uses. AECOM has taken reference from the grid, linearity, axis and contrasting organic forms which permeates Rio’s unique urban environment to propose a responsive flexible framework that resonates with and echoes the specific local characteristics of Barra and Rio. The masterplan provides an opportunity to enhance environmental quality and bring Costa’s original concept into the 21st century as an example of new urbanism for a new era.
Architects Snøhetta and AECOM have revealed their latest renderings of a new stadium for NBA basketball team the Golden State Warriors on the waterfront in San Francisco (+ slideshow).
Set to replace the team’s existing home at the Oracle Arena in Oakland when the lease expires in 2017, the 67,000 square-metre arena will be constructed in time for the start of the 2017-18 basketball season and will also provide a venue for music concerts, conventions and other cultural events.
Snøhetta and AECOM‘s latest design shows a circular building with large areas of glazing around the facade, designed to give visitors a view from outside into the practice facility and the arena during games.
Additional high-level windows will allow spectators inside the building a view through the walls to Bay Bridge just beyond.
“We believe our new design lives up to the importance of this incredible waterfront site and fuses together the vision of the Golden State Warriors with the landscape of the bay,” says Craig Dykers, architect and founding director of Snøhetta.
The Golden State Warriors arena will also accommodate 8000-square-metres of retail, plus a fire station with docks for two fireboats.
The large disc-like roof is to be covered with LEDs and will be used for the projection of images and motifs.
Construction is expected to take three years and will include $100 million worth of repairs to the piers, where the arena is set to be located.
Golden State Warriors release updated design of new arena on San Francisco waterfront
Today the Golden State Warriors released the updated design of their new sports and entertainment arena on the waterfront at Piers 30-32 in San Francisco.
“This new design by Snøhetta and AECOM builds on the first draft we released to create an arena experience on the waterfront that is unique, community-focused and unlike any other venue in existence around the world,” said Joe Lacob, Co-Executive Chairman and CEO of the Warriors. “The new design creates more open space and accessibility to the waterfront, new berths for fireboats and cruise ships and public views into the arena that will be one-of-a-kind for an NBA venue.”
“From the beginning, we’ve said this arena will be world-class, incorporating the best in design, technology and sustainability,” said Peter Guber, Co-Executive Chairman of the Warriors. “Snøhetta and AECOM have done a masterful job designing an arena and public space that will serve as the model for a 21st century digital sports and entertainment center.”
The new arena design now includes a fire station with berths for two fireboats, a deep-water berth for large ships, public access space on the eastern edge of the pier, a sustainable “Gabion Wall” stormwater filtration system and public views that allow visitors to see inside the Golden State Warriors practice facility and into the arena during Warriors games. Additionally, the Warriors have removed nearly 750 seats and several luxury suites to allow fans to view the Bay Bridge from their seats inside the arena during games. The exterior roof of the arena will also feature small LEDs similar to the current Bay Lights art installation that can project images, patterns or shapes.
“We believe our new design lives up to the importance of this incredible waterfront site and fuses together the vision of the Golden State Warriors with the landscape of the bay and the community input we’ve heard over the past several months,” said Craig Dykers, Architect and Founding Partner of Snøhetta. “When people view the new designs, they will see a place that provides for everyone: fans, pedestrians, bicyclists, tourists, local residents and the diverse community of San Francisco.”
“The NBA is thrilled about this new design and excited that the Bay Area’s NBA team will be playing in a unique, world-class facility on the San Francisco waterfront,” said NBA Commissioner David Stern. “Once completed, the Warriors’ arena will provide our fans with one of the most technologically advanced and unique fan experiences in the NBA and all of professional sports.”
“These updated designs show the incredible potential of a new waterfront venue at Piers 30-32,” said San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee. “In addition to hosting the Warriors and enabling our city to host major indoor sporting events and concerts, the Piers 30-32 project will provide tremendous public benefits to San Francisco, including a new fire station, berths for large ships and SFFD fire boats and an expansive new civic space for fans, residents and tourists to enjoy.”
The privately financed arena will be located at Piers 30-32 on San Francisco Bay, south of the Bay Bridge, between the Ferry Building and AT&T Park.
Under the agreement, the City will provide the land and the Warriors will pay to repair the crumbling piers and privately finance the arena project. The cost of repairs alone is estimated at $100-120 million.
The new facility will host the Bay Area’s NBA basketball team, as well as provide a spectacular new venue for top-tier concerts, cultural events and conventions – prominent events the City currently cannot accommodate.
Currently under construction, the project will form a gateway to the city that connects it with the waterfront, as well as with existing and proposed airports.
The architects studied historical aerial photographs of Doha to develop a layout that follows traditional Qatari street patterns, then superimposed it over an orthogonal grid to allow room for modern day vehicles.
The combination of these two layouts, which the architects refer to as “the grid and the lattice”, will create a complex web of streets that respect the Arab/Islamic vernacular, and are also oriented to capture the north-westerly sea breeze.
Dezeen is media partner for the World Architecture Festival, which is taking place at the Marina Bay Sands hotel and conference centre. You can follow all our coverage of the event here, including a series of movies we filmed with programme director Paul Finch in the build-up to the event.
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