2014 Incheon Asian Games Stadium by Populous

Incheon Asian Games Stadium

Incheon Asian Games Stadium

Incheon Stadium

I think the design is eye-catching, the symbolism of the Seung Moo dance as an inspiration a fine one, and the renderings look great. What do you think?

See UN Studio’s selected for Dalian Shide Stadium in China
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Architecture for 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro

Architecture Caribbean congratulates BCMF Arquitetos, LUMO Arquitetos,
& Rio de Janeiro on their successful Olympic bid.

National Olympic Training Center

Rio Olympic Park

Rio-based architects BCMF Arquitetos who designed the award winning Deodoro Sports Complex for the 2007 Pan-American Games will be designing the Media and Broadcasting centres and the Olympic Park in Barra. Capable of hosting Shooting, Equestrian, Archery, Hockey and Modern Pentathlon events, the Deodoro will be adapted to become an essential element in the Rio Olympics. (Read AC interview with BCMF’s Bruno Campos). The 2016 Olympics will have an Olympic beach, on the idyllic shores of Guanabara Bay. With plans submitted by LUMO Arquitetos, the beach will be situated beside the main Olympic Village.

Olympic Aquatic Stadium

Olympic Village in Barra

Aquatics stadium; Olympic training facility; Olympic Tennis Centre

Olympic Village

While the Games will be centred around Barra, development will continue throughout the city with several venues in Maracanã , Copacabana and Deodoro and with redevelopment at the Port. The award of the Olympics will help to boost Brazil’s economy encouraging great investment and elevating the first South American country to ever host the Games, into a celebrated international stage and tourist destination – a well deserved legacy. Again Bruno, BCMF, and Brazil…CONGRATS!!!!

Architecture Caribbean link
Rio 2016 link
WAN link

UN Studio’s selected for Dalian Shide Stadium in China

Dalian Shide Stadium

UN Studio has won the limited competition for a 40,000 spectator football stadium for the Dalian Shide FC. The stadium will be built in the city of Dalian, on the southern tip of Liaodong peninsula in Northeast China. The design for the 38,500 m2 stadium was been inspired by the colourful layering and overlapping of the ancient Chinese cuju football.  Photos courtesy: Bustler.

Dalian Shide Stadium

The design for the Dalian stadium presents an inclusive approach to stadium design where the articulation of the structure and the openings and overlapping moments of its double-layered envelope serve as the starting point for visitor experience and programmatic and infrastructural requirements, in addition to heightening spectator experience in terms of proximity to the playing field.

Dalian Shide Stadium

Ben van Berkel of UN Studio says that a key feature of the Stadium is the proximity of the spectators to the pitch, ensuring the best views from the tribunes and creating a true sense of engagement. In the Dalian stadium, they envisioned the playing field as a stage with design specific views and focal points. A two tier seating system and curved outlines optimize the corners of the tribunes and allow the spectators to be as close as possible to the playing field.”

Dalian Shide Stadium

Cuju is to kick a ball with feet. Cu means kicking with feet, while Ju refers to a kind of leather ball stuffed with feathers. So combined together, Cuju means to play the ball with feet. As a kind of ancient Chinese sport, it is the prototype of the contemporary football.

Cuju

I applaud the strong concept of the Stadium by UN Studio, as well as the correct execution in the design. Well done! The “colorful weaving of the spirit of the spectators with the public realm and the urban context of the building”, along with the weaving of the structure which takes its cue from the colorful layering and overlapping of the ancient Chinese cuju football is a solid design concept.In my previous blog post on this competition (http://www.architecturecaribbean.com/blog/?p=349) I discussed NBBJ’s entry. This one won me over due to its concept and the execution of that concept was clear and concrete.

What do you think of UN Studio’s design?

Dalian Shide Stadium, China by NBBJ

Dalian Shide Stadium

NBBJ’s recent competition entry for a new stadium in Dalian, China challenges the typical stadium typology of a dramatic skin which shields those outside from those inside. The concept according to NBBJ is “an open-ended ‘garden’ design which welcomes external interaction; creates public space and invites visitors to breath in the surrounding nature.”

Dalian Shide Stadium

The structure and form of stadiums in the past and have are always about a dominant façade, dominant roof, and dominant structure. Examples include:

• Oriole Park at Camden Yards, Baltimore, USA,
• Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium
• Mound Stand at Lord’s Cricket Ground, London
• Telstra Stadium, Sydney

The original site for the new stadium (a new one is being sourced) was set beside the ocean with mountains as the backdrop to the stadium. Instead of closing off those outside from those inside, the concept “welcomes external interaction, creates public space and invites visitors to breathe in the surrounding nature.” The shorter sides of the stadium allow views to public plazas, the ocean, and mountains. The longer sides of the stadium fold up from the landscape as planted walls.

Dalian Shide Stadium

Dalian Shide Stadium

The imagined conversation between the mountains and the ocean seems almost poetic, and I can see it. Since the site for this stadium is an open one (open parkland setting), having the walls “fold up” from the landscape into planted ones can make a positive contribution to the environment. The façade does not seem to be properly composed just yet; and having the stadium completely hidden behind the planted walls is a valid strategy. I would have preferred to see those walls rise from berms in the landscape however. The planter walls seem like a monstrous barrier. If there were mounds, larger mounds rising from the landscape meeting these planted walls, the scale of the wall would read better, reinforcing their concept of interaction with nature so that it melts away into the surrounding landscape. The roof proposed will be a flexible system of cables and fabric which will “flutter above the fans.”

I like the concept and the renderings sell it. I see their concept of openness to nature. What do you think of the design?

Links: NBBJ, World Architecture News