Sanctuary

The introduction of a stadium into Des Moines, Iowa creates a new exploration for the city. This stadium will create entertainment for the city of Iowa and bring large crowds to watch games held here. It will be very important to the state of Iowa as well because it could provide a professional team that the state lacks. The only thing is how can we create a stadium that does not get destroyed or left behind after it has been decommissioned. Sanctuary brings a new factor to the stadium, instead of transitioning out of the entertainment factor of the it brings more life to what used to be a stadium. The concept of Sanctuary is it give the impression that something is going to come after the stadium. A aquarium surrounds the exterior of the stadium to give the presence of the animals that will begin to come here after it has been decommissioned. It harmonizes the soccer stadium with what it will become which is a marine and fresh water animal rehabilitation center. As time moves on the stadium will move into only being an animal rehabilitation center that provides aquatic entertainment to spectators. 

The idea of having it provide entertainment for people who come here is to provide the Sanctuary to be self-sustainable and provide the animals with what they need and the maintenance for the building. The objectives of this project were attempted to be met by thinking about them as what the community wants and how the design can be implemented into communicating with the people. There were two parts to Staydium 2.0; present and the future. The design was done to be a poetic vessel/link between the present and the future.

The location of the stadium on the site is located on the river where the land will be carved to make an island for Sanctuary stadium. The reason for this is the lack of connection of the city of Iowa to the river. This large river called “Racoon River” runs throughout the city but is not connecting to the city. When looking at other cities located by rivers, they have more of a connection to the river than the city of Des Moines does. If we create a large connection from a major point in the city such as this stadium it will create interactivity between the people of this city and the river. This will lead to more exploration such as the evolution of a master plan connection of the city to the river as we have thought out during the process of evolving the stadium. This directly ties into “Des Moines Water Works Park” that provides the city with outdoor entertainment for the city. Sanctuary bridges from the land to the island of the stadium that is surrounded by water and provides docking stations for boats and other outdoor entertainment uses.

When creating the structure and layout of Sanctuary we went through seven iterations. We started out with a long span structure to push ideas of how we could create an organic structure into a stadium. 

After we created the long span structure, we had to push the ideas of what a stadium needs in order to function. This evolved the long span structure into an actual stadium, without taking out the characteristics of the long span structure. The structure of the Sanctuary is based on nodical analogs, spring points and linking the present to the future. The covering of the stadium has long metal armatures that bridge over the centralized stadium. These long metal armatures create a panelized grid covering the stadium. The main materials for the construction of this megastructure are steel, reinforced concrete and glass. 

These materials were chosen based on their structural, tensile, and aesthetical properties. As well as the materials for the structure of the stadium technologically advanced flooring will be provided in this stadium. Pavegen has created new flooring that provides sustainable energy created by the movement of people on them. This will be able to provide our stadium with sustainable energy and entertainment to the people that can learn about these tiles with apps created by this company.

The expansion of the project is the “stay” part of the Staydium 2.0 which is the aquatic sanctuary. The soccer stadium, after being decommissioned in 6 decades is designed to become the home to aquatic rescued animals. This expands from just being a soccer stadium to something that can provide people with entertainment while helping the animals in need. The interconnection of the city to the river has not been met in Des Moines, Iowa and the separation only grows the city scape farther from nature. As time passes the master plan of the river can be implemented and create a new connection from city to nature. The city will not separate itself from the river, but the river and city will become one.