sports news: Concept Stadium DCA

Concept Stadium by DCA (Design Crew for Architecture) is an exercise of reflection willing to propose an unconstrained answer, free from whether economic or programmatic concerns, in order to provide a prospective vision of what could be, in their opinion, the ideal rugby stadium. Today, stadiums are iconic shapes answering to the representation stake, as they are bearing the image of a club, a city, a region. But paradoxically, these formal thoughts are concerning the shell and therefore establish the singular stadium status as autonomous object, disconnected from its environment. Their designs aims to become a useful object with urban concerns. More images and architects’ description after the break.

DCA conducts two parallel activities: operational projects & conceptual workshops. The workshop exercise is an opportunity for us to maintain a discussion and reflection on various topics associated with our business. If the choice to focus our thinking on a stadium to house the French national rugby team has been inspired by the actual project initiated by the French Rugby Federation, we wish to specify that our approach is, however, unrelated to F.F.R.

Concept Stadium is not a 95% of the time empty arena. This is a public space which hosts sporting events. Concept Stadium is a destination outside of match days. The development of double-ramps can offer places for multipurpose activities where visitors can move freely outside the marked plots (lying, sitting, picnicking, reading, running, playing ball or badminton). Concept Stadium© is a proximity space, it will be daily used with attendance peaks in the late afternoon, on Wednesdays and weekends. Though the Stadium is also a Park. The park is inhabited by small public facilities that will participate in the life of the city and enhance the Stadium attractiveness to the city scale. Developing around the grandstands, the Park will be a place to relax proposing many sports and cultural activities. Concept Stadium will be a place for promenades, or somewhere to simply lounge on a bench.

The traditional ring device distribution of the stadium is distorted to become a continuous ramp that circles the grandstands to offer a continuous fluid path from the forecourt to the top of the bleachers. This ramp is treated as a park, and thickened, it becomes a double ramp that houses in its lower level developable surfaces along a pedestrian gallery that could harbor shops or small facilities such as a rugby museum for example. The connection between the upper level (garden) and lower level (gallery) of the double-ramp is made through generous patios. To distribute and manage the flows, this double-ramp device is doubled, thus we have the north double-ramp and the south double-ramp.

Intermediate ramps are inserted between the two double-ramps. They are connected to the grandstands access and house retail outlets and toilets for spectators on match days. To distribute and manage the flows, this intermediate ramp device is doubled, thus we have the east intermediate ramp and the west intermediate ramp.