The way ahead is not to build huge monuments but to do something which is far more important for the legacy and community later," Barrow said. "Personally, I think that's where the future is for these events. Once an event is over it could be taken down and transported to another event somewhere else in the world.
The other option, Barrow says, could be to build modular stadiums from scratch using prefabricated techniques. The core structure is a 25,000 seat arena, with modular seating taking the capacity up to 80,000 for the duration of the games. The 2012 Olympic stadium in London, which Populous designed, conforms to this modular model. Today, nobody's interested in having stadiums which are too big. Many of the venues built for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, have fallen into a state of disuse and disrepair.īut white elephant stadiums could be an endangered species as architects, event organizers and governments put sustainability at the heart of their plans.Īrchitect John Barrow, a senior principal at global design practice Populous, believes construction of sporting arenas could be radically different in the future.Īt a recent lecture delivered at the Australian Embassy in London, Barrow described a vision of a "stadium in a box," - flexible, modular arenas, which could be tailored to the needs of an event. Not that South Africa would be the first nation to spend millions of dollars on stadiums for a major event only to find the facilities fall into disuse. Should they fail, the stadiums, built at a cost of around 1.3 billion Rand ($172 million), risk becoming costly white elephants in areas already blighted by poverty. Having hosted just four matches each, the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane and the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit now face an uncertain future as organizers attempt to secure a financially viable future for the 40,000-seat arenas. Two new stadiums in South Africa have also finished their work.
London, England (CNN) - As the knockout stages of the 2010 FIFA World Cup begin, it's not only the teams dropping out of the tournament.
0 kommentar(er)
