Bremen, Germany
Berlin-based David Chipperfield creates an elliptical-shaped stadium that would be the central venue of Milan’s 2026 Winter Olympics.
“We are very pleased to have been invited to develop the design, along with our partners Arup, for the Arena in Santa Giulia,” states Chipperfield.
Envisioned as three stacked shimmering rings of different heights perched atop a podium and “quasi floating atop each other,” David Chipperfield Architects explain in a design narrative that the arena’s distinctive form is “inspired by the archetype of the amphitheater, being reinterpreted with modern tectonics and materials.”
The arena is at the heart of a new urban district, currently under redevelopment in the southeast of Milan, which encompasses residential buildings, buildings for education, commerce, and leisure as well as an extensive park.
The wide outdoor areas outside the arena, including a spacious piazza of over 10,000 square meters, will provide a new opportunity for social interactions for people from the neighborhood and the city.
Arena Santa Giulia will be realized at the southern end of a large rectangular plot, creating a 10,000 sqm piazza to the north for social interactions and outdoor events.
The arena is raised on a podium that covers almost the entire plot.
Inside Arena Santa Giulia, visitors, who will ascend into the stadium via a monumental, greenery-flanked staircase leading up to the first ring or through a street-level cut into the podium, will find two tiers of seating above the ground level and with a premium level featuring lounges and VIP boxes.
Tucked into the podium is the event parking, which can also be found in a multi-level parking structure extending to the north of the site.
In addition to the just-revealed sports and cultural venue that will take center stage at the 2026 Winter Games, the larger Milano Santa Giulia mixed-use district is described as an “open, inclusive neighborhood, designed as a place where people interact with each other and engage with the city and the opportunities available,” will include housing and retail and commercial office space along with parkland, cultural venues, and leisure facilities.
After its completion in 2025, the arena will cater to sports and cultural events with up to 16,000 spectators.
Project: Arena Santa Giulia
Architects: David Chipperfield Architects
Client: CTS eventim group
Photographers: Onirism Studio
