Hasta La Ideas

Reed-like steel columns surround another stadium designed by German studio GMP Architekten for the World University Games in Shenzhen.

The green stems support the circular roof of the Bao’an Stadium, which is hosting football matches during the Universiade games.

The suspended membrane roof is stretched across arched supports to create a bubbled surface.

The stadium seats up to 40,000 spectators and will be used for athletics once the games are over.

The closing ceremony for the games takes place on the 23 August.

GMP Architekten also designed a trio of faceted glass stadiums for these games, as illustrated in our earlier story – see all our stories about stadiums by GMP Architekten here.

Photography is by Christian Gahl.

Here are some more details from GMP:

2011 Universiade in Shenzhen

Inauguration of the Sports Center and Bao’an Stadium

To mark the occasion of the Universiade, which will take place from 12th to 23rd August 2011, the Universiade sports center and Bao’an stadium will be opened tomorrow in Shenzhen, southern China. The international com- petitions to come up with a design for the buildings were won in 2006 and 2007 by the designs of architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners (gmp). The Universiade sports center consists of a stadium, a multifunctional hall and a swimming pool. The stadium in the Bao’an district is designed as an athletics stadium. However, during the 2011 Universiade, it is being used for football matches.

Universiades are World Games for students and are held every other year in winter and summer, hosted by the International University Sports Federation, the Fédération Internationale du Sport Universitaire (FISU). Going by the number of athletes participating, the summer Universiade is the second largest multi-sport event in the world after the Summer Olympics. It was announced in January 2007 that the 26th summer Universiade 2011 was to take place in Shenzhen.

Bao’an stadium

The extensive bamboo forests of southern China were the inspiration for the design, whose slim stanchions carry the weight of the stands and the wide-span roof structure. Visitors pass through the forest of steel supports into the first circulating area of the stadium, and thence go either up the steps to the upper tier or straight on to the lower tier. The image of a bamboo forest is created by the double row of steel supports, where every other in the inner row is connected with the concrete structure of the undulating upper tier, thus carrying the vertical loads of the specta- tor seating. The steel tubes, which are up to 32 m in length, range from 55 cm to 80 cm, varying in accordance with their differing static loads.

A membrane roof suspended from an outer frame was selected to cover the seating areas. With a diameter of 230 m and cantilevering of 54 m on each side of the stands, the roof is carried by 36 pairs of cables whose pre- tensioning is brought together via a circular double tension ring of strand-bundle cables above the pitch. The stadium is designed to hold a capacity of 40,000 spectators.

Competition: 2007 – 1st prize
Design: Meinhard von Gerkan and Stephan Schütz with David Schenke
Project leaders: David Schenke, Li Ran
Staff (design): Jennifer Heckenlaible, Daniela Franz, Zhang Xi, Yin Chao Jie, Zhou Bin, Anna Bulanda-Jansen, Cai Qing, Xu Ji
Staff (execution): Matthias Grünewald, Cai Yu, Wang Le, Wang Li, Zhang Xi, Lucas Gallardo, Zhang Xiao Guang, Sebastian Linack, Li Zheng, Pan Xin, Martin Schulte-Frohlinde
Structural engineering: schlaich bergermann und partner – Sven Plieninger with Wei Chen
Lighting Design: Schlotfeld Licht, Berlin

Chinese partner practice: SCUT South China University of Technology
Client: The Sports Bureau of Bao’an District
Seats: 40,050
Length of the stadium: 245.80 m
Width of the stadium: 245.80 m
Height of the stadium: 39.65 m
Construction period: 2009–2011

See also:

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Kindergarten Sighartstein by Kadawittfeldarchitektur	Stade Bordeaux Atlantique by Herzog & de Meuron	Pharmacy in Koukaki by KLab Architecture

Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron have designed a stadium for Bordeaux that will host football matches for Euro 2016.

A “forest” of slender white columns will support the rectangular white roof of the Stade Bordeaux Atlantique, which will shelter up to 43,000 spectators.

Natural light will filter into the stadium through glazed louvres in the roof.

The base of the arena will house VIP lounges, players-spaces and media rooms, surrounded by food stalls amongst the columns.

A public square in front of the building will form part of the proposed landscape improvements by French landscape architect Michel Desvigne.

The stadium will be completed by 2015 and will also host rugby matches.

Herzog and de Meuron previously completed the National Stadium, Beijing for the 2008 Olympic Games – click here to see all our stories about Herzog & de Meuron.

Dezeen also recently featured three stadiums for the World Aquatics Championships in Shanghai – see all our stories about design for sports here.

Images are copyright Herzog & de Meuron.

Here is some more information from Herzog & de Meuron and Michel Desvigne:

Stade Bordeaux Atlantique, Bordeaux, France
2010 – planned completion 2015

Vision of a stadium

Our project for the new Bordeaux stadium is an expression of fundamentally new architecture. The pure shape of the volume, by contrast to its light and open structure, creates an at once monumental and graceful architectural piece elegantly suited to the grand landscape of Bordeaux.

Stadium architecture combines three constitutive elements: the bowl containing the game and its spectators, the concourse as the transitional element between the playing field and the outside surroundings and, finally, the overall appearance. Our approach is to reinterpret these three elements in light of the site-specific characteristics: the resulting architecture is thus one-of-a-kind, reflecting the intrinsic features of the site.

We aim to present an architectural object in which highest functional quality is combined with a unique identity. We are confident that allying these two criteria, functionality and strong identity, endows our project with an emotional dimension that the public can feel, and that is inextricably bound to the stadium’s traditional role of staging sports.

The bowl

Seating a maximum of some 43,000 persons, the bowl embraces the game area, its geometry affording optimal visibility for all, together with the maximum flexibility of capacity and usage.

The bowl consists in two superposed tiers divided into four sectors and protected from the elements by the roof. Consisting of a multitude of concentric strips, the ceiling’s homogeneous appearance guides the gaze to the playing field, while allowing sunlight to seep through thanks to the strips’ angle of slant. This open ceiling structure does not show through on the inside of the stadium, to avoid distracting the spectators’ attention.

Raising the bowl above ground level is a compact base integrating all the programmatic functions into a uniform and symmetrical volume. This plinth includes the VIP loges and salons evenly distributed east and west as well as media areas adjacent to the spaces dedicated to players.

The simplicity and pure lines of the architecture characterizing the bowl and its base guarantee a smooth flow of spectators and easy orientation.

The overall appearance

The bowl resting on its base is covered by an elegant roof which has an unusual rectangular shape. The choice of this pure and almost abstract form is the clearest and most efficient response to the site’s natural conditions, and to the main flow of spectators east-west.

This white rectangle seems projected earthwards thanks to the multiplicity of slender columns that shower down. A ribbon of food stalls and restrooms undulates through this forest of columns, brought alive by the movement of the crowd.

At once dense and light, this structure creates an evanescent rectangular volume from which emerges the sculpted and organic outline of the bowl.
In its specificity, this architectural concept confers a strong and unparalleled identity to the new Bordeaux stadium. Well anchored to its site, this elegant and diaphanous volume looks out onto the grand landscape its transparency revealing all the energy and activities which will fill this new symbol of the city of Bordeaux’s dynamism.

Herzog & de Meuron, 2011

Landscaping

The stadium’s implantation is linked to a particular situation, serving as a juncture between a high-quality natural setting to be reinforced to the north and, to the south, a structured urban periphery area in need of new development. Hence, any plans for the upcoming stadium must represent a basic step towards introducing the Secteur Nord Rocade tree belt, a project already foreseen by the city of Bordeaux’s landscape development plan.

Our proposal aspires to draw up a preliminary rendition of these future development plans. It reinterprets the tree belt’s exceptional features comprising rows of trees lining the main access ways. It defines an overall structure and organizes the various land plots in a grid.

The stadium’s surrounding areas (parvis, parking area, green corridor) belong to this language: organic tree lines serve as screens in a setting where, following the north-south orientation, they offer a variety of views while preserving a clear frontal view of the stadium’s facade. Surrounding the stadium, an entirely pedestrian public area is accessible from all sides.

The ground of the square around the stadium consists of three elements: grass-jointed concrete paving, natural lawn dotted with groups of trees forming open spaces and, facilitating stadium entry and exit, hot-rolled asphalt on surfaces around the stadium and defining the bus parking area to the east. The parking area to the north holds onto its for the most part mineral ground already anticipating the tree belt with its densely planted trees interspersed by plant beds.

These mixed area types set the stadium within a defined landscape, closely correlating the stadium site with its surrounding woodland setting.

MDP Michel Desvigne Paysagiste, 2011
Translation, Margie Mounier

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National Stadium, Beijing by Herzog & de Meuron	London Olympic Stadium by Populous	VTB Arena Park by Erick van Egeraat

Soccer City in Johannesburg, reconstructed by architects Boogertman Urban Edge + Partners and global sports architecture firm Populous, will host the final of the FIFA World Cup which starts next month. (more…)