Qatar's World Cup stadiums need form before iconic design

Carbon-neutral, technologically advanced stadiums must not become white elephants

When the referee’s whistle blows and the 2022 football World Cup kicks off, the host nation, Qatar, will showcase some of the most technologically advanced sporting arenas ever built.

Contractors at the MEED Qatar Projects 2012 Conference in Doha expect the consultancy contracts for the nine new stadiums and three refurbished arenas to be announced by the end of this month, and the initial designs leave no doubt that they will be both striking and innovative.

To aid Qatar’s bid for the World Cup, a UK consultancy team of Arup and Mott MacDonald designed and built a 500-seater showcase stadium that is air conditioned and carbon neutral. Another 45,000-capacity stadium with wind cooling is in the detailed design stage in the country, said Michael Beaven, director, Arup, at the Sports Business Forum, ahead of MEED’s conference.

Another UK-based consultancy, Foster & Partners is working on the stadium for the opening and closing matches in Lusail. It is being designed to reflect its name: the Iconic.

Ben Veenbring, special operations consultant at specialist advisers Stadium Consultancy, says iconic designs should be of secondary importance and that form must follow function. “Draft the business plan and then build the stadium,” he says. Otherwise, Qatar could become another Greece or South Africa, littered with gigantic stadiums lying empty once the fans have gone home (pointing to the stadiums from the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2010 World Cup respectively). Like the UK’s Millennium Dome, oversized, over-specialised, single-use stadiums can become “white elephants”, a phrase used by several speakers at Qatar Projects 2012.

The facilities need to live on after the World Cup in Qatar has finished, by having the capability of being put to other uses. Clients should not get carried away with aesthetics over functionality, but should allow for modular plans that can later be used for other functions. “The basic design should be flexible enough to cater for the possibility to implement the event overlay, and a good architect will be able to do that for you,” says Veenbrink.

At the same time, stadiums have to be compelling enough to draw people away from their televisions. That doesn’t come from the building though, but from the whole experience the stadium provides – with a safe environment, adequate facilities and strong but subtle security.

Ivan Bravo, director general of Qatar’s sports academy Aspire, argues that facilities mean little if the content isn’t there. His previous job was as director of strategy for Spanish football team Real Madrid, and he says that no matter what condition the stadium is in, fans will pack it out to watch the football that is played there.

To counter the lure of large-screen TVs and comfortable sofas, both the football and the facilities have to be world class. The stadiums must create the ultimate experience for the fans and then be easily adapted to other purposes afterwards – such as smaller sporting events, conferences, concerts, or simply as public spaces. If they manage to do that, then Qatar’s stadiums will not only look great, they will have use in the future.