Lusail City, Qatar
American Prize for Architecture Laureate Norman Foster and his design team in collaboration with Populous and Ara Engineering Bureau have completed Lusail stadium, a world-class football facility for 80,000 spectators, which will host among other football matches the final of the FIFA 2022 World Cup.
“Our ambition was to create a striking yet simple form that reflects the building’s function, responds to the climate of Qatar, and enhances the theatre of the event. The arrival experience is intuitive and immersive. Spectators enter the vessel between two tiers of seating that have been intentionally compressed to heighten the sense of drama as they emerge into the generous seating bowl flooded with natural light,” states Luke Fox, Head of Studio, Foster + Partners
With an estimated global audience of over three billion, the quadrennial sporting event presents a unique opportunity to express an image of creativity and innovation, rooted in the sense of place.
Conceived as a singular, unified centerpiece at the heart of the new city, the stadium will be the central focus of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 celebrations and will play a key part in the future of the city.
Located at the end of the grand boulevard that links to the corniche along the coast, the stadium is part of an urban vision for Lusail City along with the Lusail Towers and Plaza.
An in-depth analysis of the brief and the client’s requirements, together with an appreciation of the climatic and cultural heritage of Qatar, formed the basis of the design.
The seating bowl is expressed externally as a burnished golden vessel, which sparkles against the sunlight.
The façade features triangular openings that visually reinforce the bowl’s structural diagrid and form a perforated screen to provide shade and filter dappled light onto the internal concourses.
The high-performance façades and an innovative roof design reduce the stadium’s energy consumption. Outdoor cooling technologies are used to maximize comfort within the open-air stadium.
It has achieved a five-star rating under the Global Sustainability Assessment System.
With a primary aim of creating an immersive atmosphere for both players and spectators, the pitch and its relationship to the seating bowl was the starting point of the stadium’s design.
Access to the stadium via a broad podium gives spectators a grand welcome as they approach the gates. The stadium bowl acts as a contained “vessel” that comes to life during matches and events. As the largest stadium in the region, it has the capacity to host some of the most spectacular international events.
The 307-meter-diameter “spoke-wheel” cable net roof, one of the world’s largest tensile cable-net roofs in a stadium, brings environmental comfort while also unifying the entire stadium under a single envelope.
Its outer compression ring is connected to a central tension ring by a complex cable system. This method creates a wide-expanse roof without the need for supporting columns.
The muted sand-colored palette flows into the colors of the seats, which offer a calm backdrop to the vibrancy and energy of the supporters wearing team colors.
Playful with scale and geometrically elegant, the new Lusail Stadium will be an enduring symbol for Qatar’s post-FIFA World Cup legacy.
Project: Lusail Stadium
Architects: Foster + Partners
Lead Architect: Norman Foster
Collaborators: Populous and Ara Engineering Bureau
Client: Supreme Committee for Delivery + Legacy
Photographers: Nigel Young
