Paul Goldberger has a new book out, released just this week, entitled Ballpark: Baseball in the American City. Taking a page from the Ken Burns playbook, the book looks at a particularly American building type as a lens for looking at the broader culture of cities. Goldberger’s premise is a good one: Ballparks do parallel, to a remarkable degree, trends in American urbanism. They start as an escape from the city, then the city builds up around them. Post–World War II, they escape to the suburbs, then decades later return to the city. Today, privatization of the public realm and real estate development are driving the agenda. Recently I talked with Goldberger about the new book and a whole slew of magical ballparks, both living and long gone.
Construction has been completed on the Al Janoub Stadium, the first stadium commissioned for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects and Aecom, and situated in the city of Al Wakrah, the stadium underwent a design process beginning in 2013, and was inaugurated on May 16th 2019.
To anyone enrolled in an architecture school, final year projects tend to be the perfect time to go all in. Whether you go for 3D visualizations or build remarkable models, your final presentation is the chance to display every conceptual and technical skill acquired throughout the years.
For his B.A. Final project, architect Mohammad Pirdavari of Ati-Naghsh Hamraz Consultants, presented his modernist stadium proposal in a series of freehand Airbrushdrawings. His intricate graphics helped accentuate the stadiums’ raw material and detailed relationship between the main exposed structure, and the smaller covered one.
3XN has designed a new multipurpose arena on the site of the former Olympic cycling track stadium in Munich’s Olympic Park. The Copenhagen-based firm was awarded the contract with German landscape and urban planning firm LATZ+PARTNER to design an 11,500-capacity arena that will serve as the home of German ice hockey champions Munich Red Bulls and German basketball champions FC Bayern Munich.
Manifesting as an oval structure, the sports arena “naturally and respectfully melds into the world-famous Olympic Park with its many iconic buildings.” A green roof combines with a façade of vertical lamellas to allow the scheme to blend with its urban context, with breaks in the lamellas forming glass-paneled entrances.
Oakland-Alameda Coliseum. Image Courtesy of Bjarke Ingels Group
After revealing the design for the new Oakland Athletics baseball stadium, Bjarke Ingels Group has proposed a new use for the existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. The existing stadium will be overhauled into a new commercial and housing hub to create new economic, cultural, and recreational opportunities. The Coliseum will be converted into a sunken amphitheater at the heart of a new municipal park.
The competition was organized in response to the fact that the world creates more than a billion tons of garbage per year, most of which is incinerated, buried, and explored to landfills. As populations and major cities expand, so too must our “ability to reverse wasteful tendencies and begin living more efficiently and sustainably.”
https://www.archdaily.com/910049/competition-winning-ideas-for-multi-purpose-stadiums-on-former-lagos-landfillNiall Patrick Walsh
Design firm Sasaki has unveiled a design to transform Shanghai's Hongkou soccer stadium into a sustainable health and wellness hub. Rethinking China's first professional soccer stadium, the project aims to bring new life into the 1990s single-purpose structure. The design was formed by addressing the lack of connection between the stadium and Luxun Park. As a result, the park’s landscape is extended through the stadium and rises to meet the landscape as it flows through the building.
Oakland Baseball Stadium. Image Courtesy of Oakland Athletics / Bjarke Ingels Group
Bjarke Ingels Group, James Corner Field Operations, and Gensler have released new renderings of the new Oakland Athletics baseball stadium and surrounding development. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the A’s share with the Oakland Raiders football team. The mega-ballpark includes a waterfront “jewel box” stadium at Howard Terminal and would turn the current Coliseum site into a tech and housing hub.
1. Rungrado 1st of May Stadium / Pyongyang, North Korea. Image via Viktoria Gaman / Shutterstock.com
In 776 BC, the Olympic Games of antiquity were hosted at the Olympia stadium in Peloponnese, Greece, an arena widely believed to be the world’s oldest stadium. The elongated U-shaped track and stand had a capacity of up to 45,000 people.
The existing Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. Image via BIG
The Oakland Athletics baseball team have hired Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG), James Corner Field Operations, and Gensler to lead the design process for their new ballpark and surrounding development in California. The new stadium will replace the Oakland A’s existing 51-year-old Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum, which the A’s share with the Oakland Raiders football team.
It has been reported by the San Francisco Business Times that BIG will lead the masterplan for the privately-financed ballpark, either at Howard Terminal or near the existing stadium, while Gensler will collaborate on the ballpark design. Field Operations will adopt the role of landscape architect for the development.
https://www.archdaily.com/900688/big-gensler-and-james-corner-field-operations-to-design-new-stadium-for-oakland-athletics-baseball-teamNiall Patrick Walsh
I hope you’ve caught your breath after this year’s FIFA World Cup. France’s win in Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium marked the end of an era; the last World Cup with a classic format. After the 2022 Winter tournament in Qatar, the competition will be expanded to 48 teams (rather than the current 32).
Iotti + Pavarani Architetti have designed a 'New Pisa Stadium' for A.C. Pisa on an existing stadium just 200 meters away from Piazza dei Miracoli (home to the Leaning Tower of Pisa). After winning the first prize in a restricted competition in 2017, the project is currently under feasibility study, awaiting construction development.
Five lucky architecture enthusiasts and Airbnb users have been offered the unique experience to accompany Kengo Kuma on a guided tour of the 2020 Olympic stadium in Tokyo. The renowned architect has collaborated with Airbnb to offer the exclusive experience, described as a “visit to Kengo’s under-construction Olympic stadium, along with a meet and greet at his studio and tea with the celebrated architect.”
The July 31st tour, sadly fully booked, offers an insightful example of architects collaborating with leaders of the “gig economy” to offer design experiences directly to the public.
https://www.archdaily.com/898376/kengo-kumas-airbnb-experience-to-include-tour-of-2020-tokyo-olympic-stadiumNiall Patrick Walsh
Imagine a sports stadium that could expand and contract with its fan base and team’s fortunes, one that could pick up and move to greener (and more lucrative) pastures.
Given team owners’ history of playing fans against each other, making stadiums more mobile isn’t likely to give pennant-wavers a sense of security, but the concept is an incredible breakthrough for building technology. Endlessly modular and made of ultralow-impact mass timber, this vision of low-carbon construction, conceived by engineered-wood manufacturer Rubner Holzbau and prefabricated stadium designer Bear Stadiums, could soon materialize at a soccer pitch near you.
OMA has released updated images of their Feyenoord City masterplan after reaching initial city approval in 2016. Developed for the Feyenoord football club in Rotterdam, the project comprises a mixed-use district and a new 63,000 seat stadium along the River Maas.
https://www.archdaily.com/897920/oma-releases-updated-images-for-feyenoord-city-masterplanKatherine Allen
When the Greeks carved stone steps into the side of a hill, they were aiming to create a seated area for people to rest and from which to have an excellent view of the stage at the amphitheater's center. over two millennia later, these objectives are still key to stadium design principles, however, with an ever-increasing global reach and the need for multiple functions, the goal posts for what makes a successful arena are always being moved. As you prepare to watch the 2018 World Cup hosted in Russia, take a look at this list of notable stadium designs in World Cup history which have influenced the evolution of stadium design.
As the 2018 World Cup approaches, we architects can already look ahead to the next tournament. The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar offers the most exciting opportunity in stadium design for decades, with the competition relying on an almost entirely new footballing infrastructure. Several world-renowned designers have submitted proposals, and the following set of newly released time-lapse videos show the progression of each stadium, as we approach four years to the competition’s start. Emphasising the structural shells, the videos highlight a sometimes overlooked facet of stadium design. To materialize the effortless magic of the initial renders - like those produced by Foster + Partners and Zaha Hadid Architects - phenomenal levels of engineering and problem solving are required, and in the early stages of construction, this becomes the visual focal point. Read on to see the beauty of these structural marvels, but be warned - you may develop World Cup fever.
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