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Img 1: A sports stadium in complete attendance - Concept

Sport events

Since the origin of olympics in 1896, sports events have gained a massive popularity worldwide. These events are big for all countries and a matter of great pride and responsibility for the host nation. It gives host a chance to reflect upon their cultural values & promote tourism. Huge sums of public money is invested in organising these events, out of which a major chunk is invested in preparing the venues for sports events to be witnessed by global audience.

To cater to a larger audience, the scale of venues for major sports events like olympics, commonwealth events is magnificent which require large investment of public money. However, this becomes a massive issue, majorly in developing regions. The limited usage of such buildings after the event add a layer of issue in name of maintenance cost. These structures often become a liability for host. Historically, a large number of such venues were demolished to reuse the land which may not the most ideal way to deal with public resources.

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Img 2: An abandoned stadium - Astrodome - Houston

Investment in stadiums

Stadiums are infrastructure which generally lose its importance after the events are over. Not only they are costly, but they occupy generous area in prime lands of cities. This momentary purposed architecture requires a lot of resources to keep it in function. The venues are newly constructed with hastily done feasibility studies and construction sanctions cause these venues to lose importance/popularity by time. They are either demolished for alternate use or are just abandoned because demolishing is another cost to bear.

The rampant investment of public money to host such events goes in vain once the event is over. But can these mega machines for viewing live sports be more than what they are today? Can we pre-plan the future life of the stadium and give back this momentarily used asset back to its people?

Img 3: Abandoned/Underused sports venues around the world - A montage

Img 4: Stadiums of past vs. Stadiums of future

Brief of the competition

Stadiums in the past banked on exclusivity that live sports could offer. The closed structure is a resultant of a thought when narrow gates were ticketed and then sports was served live. This was the only way to consume the thrill of live sports in the past, which explains ‘why’ the crowd. Today thanks to our advancement in long distance transmission, almost every major esports can be live previewed in our palms. The closed structure of stadiums which was then a necessity is now open to experimentation.

The challenge is to design a concept stadium for international events in a small city, such that the setup could be used/reused for many purposes beyond sports.

The sheer culmination of many facilities and building services makes a stadiums an ideal box to serve many functions beyond sports. Eg. A public space, or a Market or a Fitness park, and many many more such examples. The multi-use perspective is seen in a time span of decades where a stadium might sit idle for more than half a year.

Img 5: A view of Montpellier - Credits: Montpellier Tourism

Montpellier, France

Montpellier is a city in France and a capital of Hérault département and second largest city in the Occitanie région, southern France, located 7 miles (12 km) from the Mediterranean coast. An old university city, Montpellier is the chief administrative and commercial centre of the Occitanie region. Situated in a fertile plain, the city has grown up around its old quarters, contained within boulevards on the site of the former city walls. Today as the city advances in time and grows in its demographic, a natural need is new infrastructure. Montpellier has its own stadium (Stade de la Mosson) built in 1972, and wishes to upgrade to a new one for 2023 FIFA Women’s Worldcup.

Img 6: Urban context of the site - Credits: Google

Context

This proposed football stadium of 30,000 capacity sits close to Odysseum transit station on a farmland. Being a small city, Montpellier shows a lot of promise in its growth which reflects in its development activities at the periphery of the city. The stadium might be isolated today, but will soon be inside the urban fabric in a decade or two. Most cities of the world have to break their old stadiums at this very moment. The stadium is estimated to cost 150 million euros financed by a public + private partnership. How can this stadium make the most of these resources and be useful during action and post its decommission?

Img 7: Site Plan

Site Plan

Objectives

Objective of this challenge is to bring out design ideas which can shape the stadiums of future with a fresh outlook by making them more useful to our coming ages. The problem is leaning towards tapping the unrealised potential of futuristic stadium designs.

Entries shall be evaluated on originality of idea, concept, technology use, cost effectiveness, future use and overall functioning of the premises.

The following objectives can be a point of beginning to conceive this design.

Judging Criteria

The entries will be judged by an international jury of the competition on the following criterions:

Staydium 2020

Overview