Sumit Singhal Sumit Singhal loves modern architecture. He comes from a family of builders who have built more than 20 projects in the last ten years near Delhi in India. He has recently started writing about the architectural projects that catch his imagination.
Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain by Foster + Partners
June 9th, 2011 by Sumit Singhal
Article source: Foster + Partners
Home to FC Barcelona, Camp Nou Stadium is already the largest in Europe, with over 98,000 seats. The challenge of this project is to reinvent the existing stadium, enlarging it to accommodate 106,000 fans and provide greatly enhanced public areas and increased hospitality facilities. The project goes beyond a simple refurbishment to impact on the spirit of the place. El Barça is ‘more than a club’, and in that sense Camp Nou is ‘more than a stadium’: it is a symbol of the pride the fans feel for their team; a landmark for the city of Barcelona, and beyond that for the Catalan people.
Architect Team: Foster + Partners, Norman Foster, Mouzhan Majidi, Andy Bow, Alistair Lenczner, Angus Campbell, Carlo Negri
Ross Adams, Roman Auweck, Diana Osman, Uri Richer Atir, David Yang, Caroline Weill
Specialist Sports Advisors: AFL Architects
Camp Nou Stadium
Structural Engineer: Whitby Bird
Cost Consultant: Gleeds
Building Services Engineer: PHA Consult
Lighting Consultant: Jason Bruges
Crowd Flow Analysis: SDG
Stadium/Pitch Environment: RWDI
Sports Turf Consultant: STRI
Specialist Cable Structures Advisor: Pfeiffer
Camp Nou Stadium
Construction Advisor: Ferrovial
Sports Specialist, Advisor (Competition): AFL
Original Stadium Architects: Francesc Mijtans-Miro, Garcia Barbon and Soteras Mauri Inaugurated 24 September 1957
Projected Stadium Footprint: 52,000 m²
Projected Floor Area (gross): 180,000 m²
Approximate Budget: Euro 250 million
Projected Capacity: Increased from 98,000 to 106,000 seats (Largest stadium in Europe)
Camp Nou Stadium
New Accommodation: Expanded hospitality/VIP accommodation, Function rooms, Hospitality boxes, Public concourses, New Stadium Museum, FCB offices, Third party offices, TV broadcast + studio facilities, Press areas, Catering, Underground service vehicle roads and bays Provision for disabled people throughout
Seating Bowl: Existing seating bowl retained with upper tier expanded to accommodate extra seating capacity. Asymmetric upper tier of stadium to be retained. Presidential box retained on west side.
Spectator circulation: Horizontal and vertical circulation for all tiers to rationalised. Ramps to upper tier to be replaced by new escalators. New escape stairs to be built around outside of stadium to release internal stadium area for concourses and stadium accommodation.
Model
Stadium Enclosure: Stadium to be enclosed in new mosaic enclosure composed of translucent panels in the colours of the FC Barcelona club. Enclosure will act as rain screen around sides of stadium allowing naturally ventilated concourse areas. Enclosure to include photovoltaic panels to harvest solar energy. At night lighting will make enclosure glow in bright colours and will feature animated effects to give the stadium changing image and dynamic response to environment and events.
Roof: New stadium roof to be added to cover seating bowl on all sides. Cable net roof structure spans across the stadium and is tensioned within compression ring above the outer edge of the seating bowl. Roof structure to be erected progressively whilst stadium remains in use. Mosaic pattern of enclosure to continue over roof.
Camp Nou Stadium
New Basement: New stadium basement will include a new service ring road and new backof- house facilities such as goods loading bay, TV outside broadcast compound and stores. Basement will also allow extended players changing area and extended press conference and mixed zone.
First Team Training Pitch: Retained on stadium site with underground link to players changing area inside stadium.
Museum: New larger stadium museum incorporated into rebuilt stadium accommodation on west side.
Stadium Tour: Stadium to allow stadium tour visits with segregated circulation from FCB operational circulaton.
Camp Nou Stadium
The original stadium was designed by architects Mitjans-Miró, García Barbon and Soteras Mauri and inaugurated in 1957. It was expanded for the 1982 World Cup Finals when the asymmetric upper tier was added, completing the seating bowl as its architects had intended. While the remodelled stadium retains the essential elements of the original, importantly it introduces many improvements including escalators to the upper tier and a new roof that covers the seating bowl (it is currently roofed only on the west side). Central to the design concept is the intention to build around the existing stadium while it remains in use by FC Barcelona for all its matches, something that represents a real technical challenge.
If the new Wembley can be seen as a model for FC Barcelona’s aspirations in terms of stadium amenities, in every other respect Camp Nou will be very different. Inspired by Barcelona’s rich architectural heritage and Gaudi’s distinctive use of tile, the enclosure that wraps the building forms an overlapping mosaic of translucent tiles in the club’s colours – blue and maroon, interwoven with white, yellow and red. The tiles continue over the stadium’s roof, supported on a cable-net structure that spans the seating bowl. On match nights, this mosaic will glow vividly, providing a bright new architectural icon for the city and a defining emblem for the club’s thousands of fans.
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