News: football star David Beckham has unveiled proposals to build a 25,000-seat stadium for his new Major League Soccer (MLS) team on the waterfront in Miami.
Designed by Miami firms Arquitectonica and 360 Architecture, the bowl-shaped stadium is planned for a 14.5-hectare site in PortMiami, home to the world’s busiest cruise ship terminal, and would offer spectators an impressive view of the Downtown Miami skyline.
“When people think of Miami, they immediately think about being near or on the water. I asked my team to develop ideas for a stadium that embraces the best of the destination,” said Beckham in a statement.
The former Manchester United and LA Galaxy footballer, who retired as a player last May, will fund the stadium privately. He also plans to open a series of accompanying facilities that would include shops, restaurants, a nightclub, an outdoor screening venue and a possible football museum.
If Miami-Dade county agrees to give the site to Beckham, the building could be up and running as soon as 2018.
According to Beckham’s real estate advisor John Alschuler, a bridge would also be added to connect the site with the mainland.
“The port of Miami is the right place because it will create a great stadium, it will energise downtown, it will create jobs and economic value,” he said.
Twenty huge aluminium petals fold around this 42,000-seat stadium that sports architecture firm Populous has completed in Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, ahead of the FIFA World Cup kicking off this summer (+ slideshow).
Arena das Dunas is one of six new stadiums constructed for the international football tournament in 2014 and will be used to host four group stage matches in the city of Natal. It also serves as a new home stadium for local football clubs ABC FC and América de Natal.
Photograph by Vinicius Sousa. Main image courtesy of Populous
Populous gave the stadium a steel truss structure made up of petal-shaped modules. Clad externally with aluminium tiles, these elements provide an asymmetric form intended to reference the sand dune landscape surrounding the city.
Translucent slices of polycarbonate fill the gaps between each petal, allowing more natural light to penetrate the stadium.
Image courtesy of Picasa
“We have designed a stadium and a masterplan that showcases the aesthetics of the beautiful surrounding area of das Dunas and will create a great atmosphere for the World Cup 2014,” said Populous senior principal Christopher Lee, who led the project.
Photograph by Vinicius Sousa
The stadium can seat 42,000 spectators, with the first row of stands just 15 metres away from the action. Up to 10,600 of these seats can be temporarily removed if necessary, plus four VIP lounges each create private viewing areas for 1000 guests.
Photograph by Vlademir Alexandre
The species of grass used for the pitch was selected for its suitability to the region’s hot climate. It can be irrigated using recycled rainwater, collected from the roof as part of an integral drainage system.
Photograph by Vinicius Sous
Once the tournament is over, the building is expected to host other sports events, music concerts and trade shows. It is also surrounded by a 22,000-square-metre plaza that could become a centre for activities.
Photograph by Vinicius Sous
“The arena is in the city centre and after the World Cup we can set up a commercial area between the access ways,” said stadium director Charles Maia. “Since the beginning, the arena was designed as a multipurpose venue that can be used year-round. Our goal is to make it profitable.”
Photograph by Vinicius Sous
Arena das Dunas was officially inaugurated at the end of January and is one of four all-new stadiums designed for the FIFA World Cup 2014. These will join two older venues that have been completely rebuilt and six others that have undergone extensive renovation.
Here’s a project description from Populous:
Populous designed Arena das Dunas officially opened ahead of 2014 World Cup
The Arena das Dunas in Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, which will host four group stage matches during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Brazil, has been inaugurated by President Dilma Rousseff.
The world’s leading sports architecture practice, Populous, designed Arena das Dunas including the landscape and masterplan of the surrounding areas. The venue, which was inspired by the coastal city of Natal’s sand dune landscape, has a capacity of 42,000 with 10,600 removable seats and has been delivered on time.
The Dunas Arena is designed to be a multipurpose venue. The main stadium will host sports events, trade shows and concerts, and the stadium’s 22,000m2 outdoor plaza will also host events.
The first matches at the stadium took place on 26 January when the state of Rio Grande do Norte’s main soccer teams faced each other in a double round: América-RN vs. Confiança-SE for the Northeast Cup, and ABC vs. Alecrim for the Rio Grande do Norte State Championship.
The local soccer clubs ABC and América have signed an agreement with the Dunas Arenas management consortium to use the venue for their home games for the next 20 years.
The arena’s design is unique. Its facade and roof are integrated and made up of 20 petal-shaped modules, designed to be higher on one of the stadium’s sides, giving the impression that the sand dunes – which are common in the region – are moving. The design also enables more ventilation and light to come into the stadium.
The petal-shaped structures of the roof are made of steel trusses, covered on the outside with aluminium tiles, with thermal and acoustic insulation. Internally, they are coated with a PVC prestressed membrane. The parts are joined by translucent polycarbonate, which allows light to come through.
The Dunas Arena’s roof was also designed to capture rainwater. Gutters collect the water and take it to nine tanks below the lower stands. As a result, up to 3,000 cubic meters may be captured and reused in the lavatories and for irrigating the pitch.
Fans going to matches and events at the stadium will notice a new standard of comfort and safety. In total, there are 21 access ramps to reach each of the four stadium levels, in addition to elevators that connect the indoor car park directly with the 39 boxes. The Dunas Arena also has four lounges that can accommodate up to 1,000 people, 25 food and drink kiosks, as well as 30 restrooms.
There are four types of seats, identifiable by varying shades of blue: general public, hospitality, VIP and Executive VIP. In addition, 521 seats are reserved for people with disabilities.
A security team in the arena’s command and control centre is able to monitor images recorded by 200 cameras with facial-recognition capability in the ground’s external and internal areas. The PA system is integrated with the stadium’s two 64 square metre screens, allowing for information and match statistics to be clearly displayed to the crowd.
Players will also notice improved match conditions. The Bermuda Tifton 419 grass species used for the pitch is ideal for the region’s hot climate, and the drainage system allows for matches to be played even on extremely rainy days.
With the first row of stands only 15m away from the pitch, fans will be close to the action. In addition, the arena’s lighting system, which uses 306 floodlights, provides uniform and consistent visibility, eliminating shadows and facilitating TV broadcasts using Full HD technology.
Here are some wintery views of the new spotty stadium for Belarusian football club FC BATE Borisov designed by Slovenian firm OFIS Arhitekti, which is nearing completion and looks set to open later this year (+ slideshow).
The new Borisov Arena will replace FC BATE Borisov‘s existing home stadium, providing up to 13,000 seats for spectators on a new site to the south of the city centre.
OFIS Arhitekti designed the building with a domed shape, intended to resemble “fabric stretched over a skeleton”. The outer walls are clad with shimmering aluminium panels and are punctured by an assortment of blob-shaped windows.
Shops, bars and other visitor facilities will be located behind the facade at ground level, while staff offices, press rooms and VIP areas will occupy the level above.
The rounded shape of the arena is expected to improve acoustics during both training and matches.
Here’s a project description from OFIS Arhitekti:
Football Stadium Arena Borisov
The concept takes into account the natural advantages of the location and the existing interventions within the terrain, while maintaining as many of the existing trees on site as possible. Besides 13,000 seats there is additional 3,000 m2 of public space and are classified 4 stars according to UEFA categorisation. Traffic and parking is organised between the forest.
The arena forms a unified rounded dome, giving the impression of a single enclosed object. The skin of the dome gives an impression of a fragile stretched perforated textile pulled over the stadium skeleton. The covered space between the skin and the tribunes is a public street – a vestibule with public program (shops, bars, services, toilets) and galleries above (offices, VIP, press)
Internally, the rounded arena provides good acoustics and encourages an extrovert atmosphere from the players and the fans alike during the game, but focuses concentration during training time. The playing surface has N-S orientation, with a total area of 85 x 105m, on which 68 x 105m is used for playing. The remaining area allows enough space for the installation of advertising screens, photographers and cameras. The seats are arranged around the playing field in rows of 17 along the sides and rows of 27-28 along the short sides. The upper west gallery is reserved for press cabins, with seats and tables for 40 journalists and direct stair access to the press room and mix zone. In the east are the VIP stands, with 250 seats and bar and entertainment spaces. The VIP is accessed directly via an elevator from the entrance area with a car driveway. The athletes have a separate access on the lower platform, with passage to team buses and parking. At each entry point to the field are two dressing rooms, mix zone, physiotherapy and a space for doping control.
There are 4 floors with extra program and service facilities under the west stand area and 3 floors under the east side. The foyer for visitors is located on the first floor level and has 4 stairway access points. It is a covered plateau, naturally ventilated and unheated. Extending all around the inner stadium arena, this space contains the visitor’s toilets, bars, first-aid room and detention: it is a place to break during half-time. 3.000 m2 of public program is distributed at ground level on the north, south and east ends of the structure. In the east, a restaurant and bowling area are located. The restaurant prepares meals for the VIP during the match, with a service elevator for catering to the VIP lounge and bar within its public foyer. In the south, there are public fitness/gym studios. Other public area spaces are designed for various commercial activities. All restaurants have access from the public platform. Around the platform is a rounded pedestrian square, as a peripheral roundabout and meeting area. Parking pockets are organized into the existing forest area.
Architect: OFIS Arhitekti Engineering and local office: Magnus Group Client: FC Bate, County of Borisov
Location: Borisov, Belarus Status: commission 2010 Construction 2011 Completion 2014 Program: football stadium + public program Type: public + private Area: public program 3,628 m2, offices 480 m2, service 2,000 m2 Capacity: audience 13,000 seats, VIP 620 seats, press seats 100, parking spaces 800 Structure: steel, reinforced concrete; roof structure- metal beams with aluminium cladding
News:architects have “nothing to do with the workers” who have died on construction sites in Qatar, according to Zaha Hadid, whose Al Wakrah stadium for the FIFA World Cup 2022 is under construction in the gulf state.
Over 500 Indian migrants and 382 Nepalese nationals have died in the country since it won the right to host the football tournament, according to an investigation into conditions in the Qatari construction industry by British newspaper The Guardian, prompting an outcry from human rights groups across the world.
“It’s not my duty as an architect to look at it,” Hadid said yesterday at the reopening for her Olympic aquatics centre in London. “I cannot do anything about it because I have no power to do anything about it. I think it’s a problem anywhere in the world. But, as I said, I think there are discrepancies all over the world.”
Hadid‘s Al Wakrah stadium is one of five new venues under construction for the tournament but the architect says it is the responsibility of the Qatari government not architects to address issues relating to worker deaths.
“I have nothing to do with the workers,” she said. “I think that’s an issue the government – if there’s a problem – should pick up. Hopefully, these things will be resolved.”
Asked if she was concerned about the deaths, Hadid commented: “Yes, but I’m more concerned about the deaths in Iraq as well, so what do I do about that? I’m not taking it lightly but I think it’s for the government to look to take care of.”
The 40,000-seat stadium is currently under construction in Al Wakrah. Its curvaceous form was based on a type of Arabian fishing boat, but the design came under fire shortly after release when critics compared it to a vagina.
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)
News: architect Zaha Hadid has hit back at critics who have compared the design of her Al Wakrah stadium in Qatar to a vagina, describing the comments as “embarrassing” and “ridiculous”.
Speaking to TIME magazine, Hadid said: “It’s really embarrassing that they come up with nonsense like this. What are they saying? Everything with a hole in it is a vagina? That’s ridiculous.”
She suggested that the comments would not have been made had the architect been male: “Honestly, if a guy had done this project…”
Earlier this week Zaha Hadid Architects unveiled the design for the stadium, which is one of several new structures that will be built to host soccer matches during the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Critics immediately compared the 40,000-seater stadium, which its architects claim is based on the curving lines of an Arab dhow fishing boat, to female genitalia.
The Al Wakrah stadium has been co-designed by AECOM and features a flowing roof designed to protect spectators from the worst of Qatar’s extreme heat.
“With its shiny, pinkish tinge, its labia-like side appendages and its large opening in the middle, the supposedly innocent building (“based upon the design of a traditional Qatari dhow boat”) was just asking for trouble,” wrote The Guardian’s Holly Baxter on the ensuing furore.
It is unusual for an architectural structure to be compared to a vagina; comparisons with the male organ are far more common.
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.
Zaha Hadid’s competition-winning design for the new 80,000-seat stadium was approved by the Japanese government six months ago, but sports minister Hakubun Shimomura has now backtracked on the decision, telling parliament that that 300 billion yen (£1.8 billion) is “too massive a budget” for the construction.
“We need to rethink this to scale it down,” he said. “Urban planning must meet people’s needs.”
In a statement last week Maki, who was awarded the Pritzker Prize in 1993, said: “The problems I see with the planned stadium all relate to the issue of scale.”
Fujimoto had also voiced his objections to the size, commenting via Twitter: “We are NOT against Zaha. We just think the basic requirement of the competition was too big for the surroundings.”
The Iraqi-born British architect saw off competition from 10 other finalists, including Japanese architects SANAA, Toyo Ito and Azusa Sekkei. The judging panel included Tadao Ando, who commented: “The entry’s dynamic and futuristic design embodies the messages Japan would like to convey to the rest of the world.”
Set to replace the existing Kasumigaoka National Stadium, the new building will be located alongside Kenzo Tange’s iconic 1964 Olympic stadium in Tokyo’s Yoyogi Park.
Zaha Hadid Architects previously designed the Aquatics Centre for the London Olympics in 2012.
These previously unseen photographs show the faceted modular structure of the Baku Crystal Hall in Azerbaijan, which was designed and completed in just eight months (+ slideshow).
The building, which was presented earlier this month at the Inside Festival in Singapore, had to be designed and constructed simultaneously to be ready in time to host last year’s Eurovision Song Contest, so German firm GMP Architekten collaborated closely with contractors Alpine Bau Deutschland and Nüssli throughout the process.
Conceived as both a concert hall and a sports stadium, the 25,000-seat stadium comprises a lightweight steel structure with a faceted membrane facade intended to resemble cut crystal.
According to Nussli’s Claus Kruppa, it was originally planned as a temporary structure, but was subtly altered during construction to enable it to remain in place for longer.
“A small change in the drawings, and now it’s going to be there for 30-40 years,” he said.
The building is located on a peninsula outside the centre of Baku. Its facade is covered with 9500 LED lights, which bring the structure to life after dark.
News: London studio Weston Williamson has won a competition to design a new athletics stadium for Brasilia with a concept for a shape-shifting structure that opens like a flower in response to wind direction and sunlight.
The competition called for ideas for a 70,000-seat athletics venue and Weston Williamson’s winning response features a circular building with a skeletal structure modelled on the wings of a bird in flight.
A series of feather-like sections would make up the animated exterior. Each would be able to shift itself independently, adapting to changing weather and lighting but also creating a spectacle during ceremonial occasions.
“The exterior form of the new athletics stadium reflects the utopian spirit of the Brasilia plan by incorporating a geometry that is ever-changing,” said the studio. “The stadium, therefore, has no fixed identity, but alters in relation to the condition of its surroundings.”
The base of the stadium would be elevated on a wooden plinth and surrounded by pools of water and trees, using passive cooling to moderate the interior temperature.
Position one
The competition, which was organised in connection with the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, was intended to be “design constraints free”, allowing applicants to “be creative and test the boundaries of what is possible”. A $12,000 prize is awarded to the winner.
Weston Williamson + Partners has won 1st prize in the Brasilia Athletics Stadium Competition run in connection with the upcoming Olympics.
The exterior form of the new Athletics Stadium reflects the utopian spirit of the Brasilia plan by incorporating a geometry that is ever-changing. The stadium, therefore, has no fixed identity, but alters in relation to the condition of its surroundings.
Position four
The stadium references the iconographic plan for Brasilia, that represents a bird in flight, by incorporating massive feather like structures that envelop the interior. These fine structural elements shift in relation to wind direction and sunlight, meaning that the form is constantly in flux. The movable envelope also acts ceremoniously, reaching upwards to the sky when an event is about to unfold, adding another layer of visual spectacle to the games.
Position five
The stadium is situated on a wooden plinth surrounded by water pools and dense greenery which helps to cool the site in the intense heat. A network of shaded facilities is situated beneath this plinth, all lit with top light from perforations within the timber structure above.
The design proposes a fluid icon, suited to an environment that is being continually redefined.
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