News: the David Adjaye-designed Wakefield Market Hall in Yorkshire, England, is facing demolition just six years after opening, following news the local council wants to sell the building to a developer and replace it with a cinema.
The 4000-square-metre market hall was the first public project by high-profile London architect David Adjaye, but since opening in 2008 it has struggled to attract enough visitors and has been heavily subsidised by the council.
Property firm Sovereign Land, owner of the nearby Trinity Walk shopping centre, has now put in a bid to redevelop the site and create a new multi-screen cinema complex including restaurants and cafes.
A report recommending the proposals will be voted on by council members early next week. If approved, £100,000 will be set aside to relocate market traders to a new site in the city centre.
Detail of roof at Wakefield Market Hall
“We have to accept that the market hall has not worked as well as we would have liked,” said councillor Denise Jeffery, the cabinet member for regeneration and economic growth. “But we now have an exciting opportunity to inject something new into our city centre, which we believe will boost the night-time as well as the daytime economy, bringing more jobs and investment into the district.”
She continued: “This also gives us the chance to deliver our market offer in a different way and we want to work with traders to help relocate their businesses to other premises should they so wish. The proposed relocation of the outdoor market to the precinct will enhance it, make sure it is sustainable and create a vibrant link between the Ridings and Trinity Walk.”
Adjaye designed the hall to replace a run-down indoor market from the 1960s, but it struggled to attract the same footfall, losing out to rival markets in nearby Pontefract and Castleford.
Just a year after opening, a council committee was hired solve “design flaws” that included substandard paving and inadequate drainage in the food hall. Committee member Janice Haigh criticised the layout and said “a crane with one of those demolition balls” would be the best solution.
Amidst the fast-paced construction of King’s Cross in London, young Finnish studio AOR has installed an angular canal-side platform where visitors can make contact with some of the local wildlife (+ slideshow).
Named Viewpoint, the floating structure sits over the Regent’s Canal on the edge of the Camley Street nature reserve. It provides a habitat for birds and bats, as well as an outdoor classroom where people can learn about the surrounding flora and fauna.
AOR architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila and Mikki Ristola based the structure on traditional Finnish Laavus, which are shelters used during hunting and fishing trips. It comprises a small cluster of triangular volumes that form hideaways and seating areas.
“Basically it’s a floating platform where people can go and have a view along the river, and just have a small break from the hectic life of the city of London,” said Aarti.
Outer surfaces are clad with rusty Corten steel, as a reference to weather-beaten canal boats, while interior surfaces are lined with timber to soften acoustics.
The concrete ground surface is imprinted with pretend animal tracks that help to prevent slips, plus triangular peepholes at the eye levels of both children and adults offer private glimpses of birds such as swans and kingfishers.
Installation process
“We hope that Viewpoint will have resonance beyond its modest footprint and allow the many visitors to Camley Street Natural Park to discover this natural environment – a rarity in a metropolitan city such as London,” added the architects.
Here’s some additional information from the design team:
The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation announce the launch of Viewpoint – a floating platform for Camley Street Natural Park
The Finnish Institute in London and The Architecture Foundation are delighted to announce the launch date for their new floating platform Viewpoint, produced for London Wildlife Trust. The joint commission designed by emerging Finnish architects Erkko Aarti, Arto Ollila & Mikki Ristola (AOR) will open to the public on 10 February 2014 at Camley Street Natural Park, located in King’s Cross. The permanent structure will bring visitors to Camley Street Natural Park, London Wildlife Trust’s most central nature reserve, connecting them with the wildlife of the park and the Regent’s Canal. It will also provide the Park with an additional workshop space and learning facility and become an architectural focal point of King’s Cross.
Competition visualisation
The inspiration for Viewpoint comes from the rocky islets and islands of the Nordic. For Finns these islands are places of sanctuary, to relax the mind and get away from hectic city life. Viewpoint offers Londoners a chance to experience this escape on a secluded islet in the heart of the city.
For the final design the architects were inspired by the traditional Finnish structures of Laavus, traditional shelters intended for temporary residence during fishing and hunting trips. These simple, primitive, triangular constructions are made using available raw materials such as tree branches, moss and leaves.
Competition visualisation
Viewpoint offers a contemporary take on the Laavu made from materials that represent the industrial history and robust character of London’s King’s Cross. Old brick buildings, canal boats and the untamed Natural Park act as a palette of materials for the designers. The exterior surfaces of Viewpoint will be clad in dark Corten steel inspired by canal barges, changing in colour and appearance with exposure to the elements. A warm wooden interior will generate soft acoustics and comfortable surfaces to sit on, and graphic concrete with an animal track pattern will form the base of the structure, acting as both a decorative tool and slip prevention.
Viewpoint will be an ideal location for visitors to reconnect with nature in the heart of London. London Wildlife Trust will also utilise the space in their educational programmes for schools as an outdoor classroom, a destination for nature walks around the park and for viewing the rich abundance of wildlife of the Regent’s Canal including daubenton’s bats, whooper swans and the elusive Kingfisher. To offer a sense of adventure for school children the architects have incorporated small triangular openings at different heights giving new and unique views of the canal and its wildlife.
Mexican firm Taller 6A has renovated a library inside an eighteenth-century building in Mexico City, adding a bookshop with hundreds of wooden boxes on its walls, its ceilings, and under its glass floor (+ slideshow).
Named La Ciudadela, the historical building had previously served as a military headquarters, a prison, a school and a weapons factory, but was converted into a library in 1946. Its last renovation was in 1987, when Mexican architect Abraham Zabludovsky added canopies over the courtyards, so Taller 6A was brought in to modernise existing facilities and make room for new activities.
The architects created a combined bookshop and exhibition space within a pair of symmetrical corridors at the northern end of the complex.
Hollow wooden boxes of different sizes and proportions were mounted to the long walls of the two corridors, creating an assortment of niches for storing and displaying books, as well as recessed lighting fixtures.
More of these boxes cover the ceilings, while the floor comprises a grid of criss-crossing wooden planks that provide extra display areas beneath a transparent surface.
The project also included the addition of a new children’s library at the western end of the building, which is divided into two sections to separate quiet workspaces from rooms dedicated to group activities and play.
Here, circular bookshelves and desks are interspersed with brightly coloured furniture, and spaces open out to a pair of adjoining terraces.
Upgrades to the rest of the building included reinstating the main courtyards as public areas, introducing natural lighting and ventilation, and improving disabled access.
Photography is by Jaime Navarro.
Here’s a project description from Taller 6A:
The City of the Books and the Images
“La Ciudadela” is a building from the end of the XVIII century and it was conceived as the Royal Tobacco Factory from Spain. It was built at the border of the colonial city of Mexico and it has had different functions over the time: military headquarter, prison, weapons factory, school, and, from 1946 to the present, as a Library; in fact, it was the first Library, as that, in Mexico. In 1987, the building had a big intervention, designed by Abraham Zabludovsky, in which the four main patios and the central one were covered with structures as umbrellas covering them.
The actual intervention in the historic building aims in: a) reorganising the program of the different activities for a more logical and efficient operation; b) recovering the character of the building by taking back the functioning of the original patios and restoring the pathways, crossing from north to south and in the perimeter, of the building; c) improving the conditions of natural light and ventilation to get a better and rational use of the energy and resources available; d) attending the requirements of accessibility by using tactile guides and signals and ramps in a topography that eliminates any kind of step in the common areas; and e) updating the installations and equipments of the library according to the needs and uses of interconnectivity of the modern life.
Children’s Library
The project for this area guarantees the safety of the children. The section beside the street houses the Braille area, a multipurpose space, digital teaching, the toy library, and a specialised area for babies, everything organised around a patio; the second one, around a garden that connects this area with the central patio of the building, contains the general library and the workshop area; this differentiation of sections allows the division between playing and reading areas to avoid distractions in the last one. In its interior, bookcases and the control points are solved with independent circular elements adapted to each need that permits free flows, a general visual contact of the area, and to concentrate small groups of children inside them.
“Alejandro Rossi” Bookstore
Conceived not only for selling but also as an exhibition area, the bookstore is located in two symmetrical spaces separated by the north-south corridor of “The City of the Books in La Ciudadela”: one is for general books, other for young and children material. In both cases, the access contains the control and cashiers area while a long and narrow space is treated as a covering honeycomb which varies in their deeps: in the walls, it works to contain books, screens and seating containers; in the ceiling, it hides the lights and MEP; in the floor, if conforms a mesh, covered with glass, that receives books, objects and other kind of stuff for exhibition to identify each block of the bookstore with kind of public it will receive.
Project: The City of the Books and the Images Master Plan Location: La Ciudadela Square, Centro Neighbourhood, Mexico City Architect: Taller 6A (Bernardo Gómez-Pimienta, Luis Enrique Mendoza y Alejandro Sánchez) Team Members: Alejandro Juárez, José Barreto, Alfredo Cortes, Christian Santillano, Iván Rey Martínez, Alejandra Aguirre, Edgar González, Mariana Ruiz, Homero González, Raymundo Alonso, Luis Felipe Márquez, Lourdes Lozano, Monserrat Díaz, Roberto Andonie, Otto Pérez, Sebastián Navarro, Álvaro Rodríguez, Héctor Fuentes, Andrea García, José Manuel Estrada, Juvencio Nuñez, Gerardo Estrada, Freddy Jafet, Ana María, Flor.
Year of Design: 2011 Year of Construction: 2011-2012 Area: 25,450 m2 Structure: Izquierdo Ingenieros y Asociados, S.C. MEP: Diseños Integrales de Ingeniería, S.A. de C.V. Lighting: Luz en Arquitectura, S.C. Landscaping: Entorno Taller de Paisaje. Graphic Design: Varela + Kimura Rendering: Erick Barrón Model: Patricia Aguerrebere Virtual video: Erick Barrón
Stockholm 2014: the delicate glass base of this vase by German designer Hanne Willmann contrasts with a concrete cover that supports the stems of flowers.
The top section of Berlin-based Willmann‘s vase is balanced on a straight-sided cylindrical glass vessel.
“With the Willmann Vase my ambition was to play with contrasts and the fragility of glass,” Willmann told Dezeen. “The concrete is set above the glass, so you can only see the stalk of the flowers.”
The lid narrows towards the top to support flowers placed in the vase, and can be removed to make it easier to clean the two parts.
“The shape of the concrete cover was a result of the need to hold a flower bouquet together,” explained Willmann. “I also wanted to emphasise the roughness and coldness of the strong concrete with a simple and straight shape. The glass appears even more fragile this way and makes a great contrast.”
Willmann used a polyconcrete composite to manufacture the cover. This material combines cement with a polymer binder that provides reinforcement while enabling it to be cast in reduced thicknesses. In the case of the lid, the wall thickness is just five millimetres.
The designer sketched several options for the height and diameter of the two parts and produced prototypes of the shape on a lathe that were used to create a plaster mould.
The vase was presented at the Maison&Objet design fair in Paris last month by Danish design brand, Menu, and is currently on show at the Stockholm Furniture Fair.
Architecture collective MAPA of Brazil and Uruguay has built a prefabricated modular home and transported it by lorry to a picturesque spot in the countryside outside Porto Alegre (photos by Leonardo Finotti + slideshow).
MAPA, which was formed by the merging of separate studios MAAM and StudioParalelo, built the mobile residence as the prototype for Minimod, a business creating bespoke modular structures that can be used as homes, remote hotels, pop-up shops or temporary showrooms.
The residential retreat comprises four modules, creating separate areas for sleeping, lounging, dining and bathing within a simple steel-framed structure.
The two end walls of the building are entirely glazed. At one end, this frames views out from the bedroom area, while at the other it creates a shower room that can be treated as both an inside or outside space, depending on which doors have been opened.
Huge shutters also hinge away from the side walls to reveal floor-to-ceiling windows, allowing residents to open their living space out to the surroundings.
The base of the building is raised off the ground to protect it from rising damp and the roof is covered with plants that integrate a natural system of rainwater harvesting and filtration.
The structure was entirely prefabricated before being delivered to its rural location, but MAPA says the buildings can also be transported in pieces and assembled onsite.
MINIMOD proposes an innovative, intelligent and sustainable alternative of dwelling
Starting from a minimal module, MINIMOD invests in customisation, design and sustainability. The production is carried out in a prefabricated manner and enjoys the steel frame system technology, which lets the client adapt the space to his needs, choosing among different finishes, as well as automation options.
Depending on the composition of the modules, MINIMOD can vary the uses ranging from a compact refuge for weekends, a small showroom for events, up to hotels and inns, combining a larger number of modules. The modules are 100% prefabricated and elevated to a determined place by truck or disassembled into smaller pieces and taken to the ground for final assembly.
The expansion and addition of new modules can be performed either at initial installation or in the middle of the process, according to the needs and budgets of the client. MINIMOD is more than a product of design, is more than a house. It’s practicality combined with comfort, it’s economy allied to nature, it’s a unique experience of housing and contemporary living.
MAPA Architects it’s a binational collective that works on architectural projects in Brazil and Uruguay. From this double geographical condition, MAPA explores the limits of non-conventional production formats. The studio has originally established itself from professional and academic grounds: two complementary fields that create and shape its work.
British designer Tom Dixon‘s interior for Paris restaurant Éclectic combines raw, industrial concrete surfaces with tactile brass, marble and leather details.
Commissioned by restaurateurs Fabienne and Philippe Amzalak, the restaurant is the first flagship interior in France to be completed by Dixon‘s interior design office, Design Research Studio.
Located in the Beaugrenelle Centre – a redevelopment of a monolithic concrete shopping mall originally opened in 1978 – the 160-cover brasserie features materials and motifs intended as an homage to 1970s brutalist architecture.
“Tom Dixon began with the idea of making the restaurant an integral part of its modernist surroundings,” explained a statement from Éclectic. “The technical areas of the building are exposed for maximum space, and concrete – the superstar of brutalism – is exploited in every possible texture.”
Concrete floors are left raw in places and waxed in others, while structural columns and ceiling beams are left exposed and the material is juxtaposed with warm brass panels on the walls.
The angular forms popularised by exponents of Brutalist architecture influenced the recurring use of geometric shapes, which appear in the hexagonal wall panels, the sharp edges of the panels surrounding the circular booths, and a faceted plinth at the entrance.
Fitted furniture creates different environments throughout the space, while brass table tops and benches upholstered in fabric and leather give the seating areas a warm and tactile feel.
A long curving bench provides seating with a view of the river Seine through full-height windows.
The interior features several examples of Dixon’s furniture and lighting, including a huge central chandelier made from 124 of his Cell lights.
Pieces including high tables with inverted conical tops, rounded sinks in the bathrooms that resemble Dixon’s Void lamps, and the angular podium at the entrance provide a sculptural presence.
As well as the Cell chandelier, smaller clusters of the lamps illuminate tables, while Dixon’s Etch lights, Base lamp and Lustre pendants also feature.
Photography is by Thomas Duval.
The following information is from Éclectic:
Tom Dixon’s Éclectic opens in the Beaugrenelle Centre, Paris
After relooking Le Bon and launching Ma Cocotte, Fabienne and Philippe Amzalak open Éclectic restaurant this January in the magnetically attractive surroundings of the Beaugrenelle Centre in the 15th arrondissement of Paris. For this address within an address, the couple entrusted the design brief to UK designer Tom Dixon’s Design Research Studio: its first flagship interior in France. The menu offerings give a contemporary twist to brasserie classics in this new 160-cover eatery.
A happy marriage between Parisian chic and British eccentricity, a free-form tribute to 1970s architecture and a new take on the traditional brasserie format to create a more private and more comfortable experience. The clue to the identity of Eclectic is right there in the name: a concept that mixes influences on the menu and in the restaurant.
70’S First
Tom Dixon began with the idea of making the restaurant an integral part of its modernist surroundings. The technical areas of the building are exposed for maximum space, and concrete – the superstar of brutalism – is exploited in every possible texture.
On the walls, it alternates with a backdrop of golden brass. On the floors, it is sometimes unfinished, sometimes waxed, and interspersed with areas of thick carpet to offset its potentially cold appearance.
Hexagons are used as a recurring theme, recalling the geometric and modular concepts of the 1970s. This theme is clear in the spaces formed by the interlocking central bench seats, the brass detailing that frames the view to the kitchen, and again in the design of the 124 metal lampshades of the chandelier, which presides over the dining room as the central pivot of its decorative style.
English Twists
Lighting is central to Tom Dixon’s design scheme, which showcases his talent for creative mood making. An orchestra of different lamps provides controlled lighting designed to reflect effectively from superb surfaces of wood, metal, stone and paint, and enhance the colours used for fabrics and leathers.
This scheme creates an interior where the influence of the architectural environment is balanced against the magnetic appeal of the department stores.
The bespoke furniture is sculptural, even jewel-like in places. It structures the dining room around key elements that include the imposing coloured leather bench seats, the central alcoves and a succession of small open lounges along the wall overlooking the River Seine.
The result is a hyperquality mix-and-match that is elegantly welcoming and makes the 300 m2 dining room an intimate and friendly space.
Iconic pieces on show include the Knotted Chair that marked his international breakthrough in 1996 and the Lace Table created when Wanders was part of the avant-garde conceptual Dutch design movement led by Droog Design in the late 1990s.
This is the first large-scale presentation of the designer’s work and the first major design exhibition at the museum since its reopening in 2012.
The Knotted chair marked Marcel Wanders’ international breakthrough in 1996
“It’s not so much that it’s almost 25 years and it’s not so much that I’m 50, but it’s just the right moment for me,” Wanders says in this movie filmed behind the scenes at the exhibition installation.
Lace Table designed at the height of Droog Design
“When you look at the work you do every day, you do see things,” he continues. “But if you look at the work you did for 25 years, suddenly you start to get a more complete picture.”
Over 400 objects are on view in the lower-level gallery space, located in the new wing of the Stedelijk Museum.
The show is divided into three sections. A white zone groups his work according to themes including craftsmanship, narratives and dialogues, surface, innovation, archetypes, variation, and playing with scale.
A black zone then presents work of a more experimental nature in a theatrical setting.
This area features seven virtual interiors created by Wanders as a series of movies. Some are fantasy interiors incorporating his furniture, while others depict more mysterious, dreamlike worlds.
Promotional image for Wanders’ design brand Moooi
A third zone functions as a lounge where Wanders’ role as art director for design companies is explored, including the Moooi brand that he co-founded in 2001 and the publicity photos that he creates for clients including Dutch airline KLM.
“Marcel is not only one of the most important Dutch designers of the past decade, but in fact he is one of the most creative, versatile and successful designers internationally of the past decade,” says exhibition curator Ingeborg de Roode.
Dutch pop composer Jacob Ter Veldhuis has created a soundscape especially for the exhibition and Wanders has also partnered created a cocktail that will be served in the museum’s restaurant for the duration of the show. The exhibition continues until 15 June 2014.
Stockholm 2014: as Guest of Honour at Stockholm Furniture Fair, design duo GamFratesi has installed petal-shaped mobiles above the lounge area at this year’s exhibition.
Concept sketch of the installation
Stine Gam and Enrico Fratesi decided on a theme of balance for their installation at the annual showcase of Nordic design.
Mobile hanging in GamFratesi’s studio
“We’ve been working on this idea of balance,” Fratesi told Dezeen. “We’ve been researching it for a while and it is something that is really difficult to achieve.”
Mobile hanging in GamFratesi’s studio
They designed a collection of mobiles to hang above and among the lounge area in the entrance hall of the Stockholmsmässan exhibition centre.
Mobile hanging in GamFratesi’s studio
“These hanging elements were really interesting to us, something that was moving slowly,” said Fratesi.
Mobile hanging in GamFratesi’s studio
The pair referenced the work of twentieth-century American sculptor Alexander Calder for this project.
Alexander Calder’s Maripose mobile, 1960
“We wanted to bring the feeling behind the artist to furniture in a very industrial way,” Fratesi explained. “We were analysing these mobiles and could see that they were very crafted, very thin and hand bent.”
Mobile prototype
They spent a long time experimenting with the size and shape of the panels to get them to hang in equilibrium.
Mobile prototype
“We found that they were so sensitive to any kind of changes,” said Gam. “As soon as you change a milligram or a centimetre on one piece, the whole thing becomes completely unbalanced.”
Mobile prototype
The petals were upholstered in a palette of red and blue shades, all with greyish tones. Fabric produced by Danish company Kvadrat was heat-pressed over recycled felt, which acts as a sound absorber.
Mobile prototype
Combinations of three, four and five of petal-shaped elements are hung from black metal rods, attached together with small flexible joints.
Fabric patterns and samples
The mobiles are suspended on thin wires above an open lounge area, arranged around a central white block. GamFratesi wanted to create an open space rather than a closed environment.
Paper model of a mobile
“In the beginning, we thought we’d close everything to make an intimate space where people could relax,” said Fratesi. “But then we thought this was dishonest. People are moving around, so why don’t we emphasise this feeling in the space.”
Concept sketch of a mobile
The lounge area is furnished with sofas, dinning tables and chairs plus other designs the duo have created during their career, including the Rewrite desk with a cave-like shield on top.
A series of embossed paper displaying the same shapes as the petals are mounted on the central walls.
Originally from Denmark and Italy respectively, Gam and Fratesi set up their studio in Copenhagen in 2006. They presented some of their first work in the Greenhouse section of the fair for young designers in 2007.
Stockholm Furniture Fair is open until Saturday and the installation will remain in place for the duration of the exhibition.
Augmented reality devices that are tiny enough to “sit in your eye” will soon add layers of digital information over the real world, says Millns.
Users will be able to see whole cities with information layered on top of them via tiny devices placed in the eye, completely changing their urban experience, he claims.
“When we can track natural features in the city we can [then] bring in all sorts of information layered on to the urban view.” This could include information related to travel, shopping, the proximity of friends and so on.
This augmented reality app in an iPad tracks the printed pattern on the podium to generate a 3D architectural model
The adoption of this technology will be helped by the second major development Millns predicts.
“Most augmented reality so far [works] using a two-dimensional flat marker,” says Millns, referring to 2D-printed marker patterns that interface with digital models on devices like iPads to render augmented reality views.
This tracking method limits augmented reality to fairly rudimentary usages – but not for long.
One of Zaha Hadid Architects’ models tracked by an augmented reality app
“In the future we won’t need [to use] two-dimensional specific markers, the augmented reality app will just track the natural environment”, he says.
Couple this with more sophisticated viewing technologies, and the use of augmented reality will soar, Millns claims: “When we have devices that just sit in your eye and it’s not obvious you are wearing them – that’s when augmented reality will really take off.”
Augmented reality rendering of Zaha Hadid Architects’ model
Today’s augmented reality relies on an intermediary device such as a smartphone or tablet, on which the user sees an “augmented” version of the world.
“One example of using augmented reality that people might be familiar with is using a tablet,” says Millns. “We use a live image via the camera and we layer on objects to make them appear as if they are really there.”
The augmented reality Dezeen Watch Store pop-up allows customers to virtually try on a range of watches. By wrapping a paper “marker” around their wrist and looking at a screen, customers can see the watches modelled on their wrists in real time.
Customers can also explore an augmented reality scale model of Zaha Hadid Architects’ 90-metre Jazz superyacht using a tablet computer.
By pointing an iPad at a printed marker resting on a platform, they can view and walk round the yacht as if it was really there.
Augmented reality models are used for medical research and teaching
Based in Shoreditch, east London, Inition specialises in using new technologies such as virtual and augmented reality to create a range of experiences and installations.
Inition has built augmented reality models for several developers to help promote their buildings as well as architects, including Zaha Hadid for whom they developed a model which explored the effects of different airflows and lighting on the building.
The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games get underway this Friday with an opening ceremony inside a Fabergé egg-inspired stadium by sports architecture firm Populous.
The Fisht Olympic Stadium is one of 11 new purpose-built venues designed for the 2014 winter games in Sochi, Russia, by Populous – the firm behind the London 2012 Olympic stadium – and it forms the centrepiece of the 200-hectare Olympic Park.
The building features a temporary shell-like roof based on the jewel-encrusted Fabergé eggs that have become an icon of Russian culture. Constructed from translucent polycarbonate, this roof will facilitate light projections during the games and is likened by the architects to the snow-covered peaks of the Caucasus Mountains.
The south side of the building was designed to shelter the stadium and spectators from the adjacent seafront, while longer elevations on the east and west sides open out to the plaza where the cauldron will be on show.
During the games the 40,000-seat stadium will be used to host the opening and closing ceremonies, but no sporting events. It will then be converted into a 45,000-seat football venue for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, before being downsized to a 25,000-seat club for a local football team.
Here are more details from Populous:
Fisht Olympic Stadium
Challenge
Russia’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics was part of a broader goal to step back onto the world stage as hosts of major sporting events (the country’s last event was the Moscow Summer Olympics back in 1980). The challenge was threefold: to convince the International Olympic Committee that Russia had both the vision and the infrastructure to host such a major event; to develop the popular summertime coastal resort of Sochi into a world class destination for winter sports, and to design a stadium flexible enough to facilitate the Olympic ceremonies, then act as a venue for FIFA World Cup matches and, finally, become the home venue for a local football team.
Innovation
For the first time, an Olympic Park has been designed as part of a Winter Games master plan. This unusual step guarantees a unique legacy for these Games, marking Sochi out as a winter destination for decades to come. Within the park, the main level of the stadium is raised on a landscaped mound, providing stunning views from within. The unique engineering systems will enable truly memorable opening and closing ceremonies while, post-Games, the in-built flexibility of the stadium’s design means its capacity can change over time to provide event configurations from 45,000 seats for FIFA World Cup matches to a compact, atmospheric 25,000 for local matches.
Impact
Winning the bid for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games has not only reinstated Russia’s reputation as a viable host for major events, but has transformed Sochi itself. The infrastructure that our work has helped create will regenerate the region, marking Sochi out as a year-round tourist destination and major new European winter sports centre.
Location: Sochi, Russia Client: Olympstroy Architect: Populous Capacity: 40,000 Events: Opening and Closing Ceremonies, 2018 FIFA World Cup (legacy mode)
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
