www.psam.uk.com
clear preparations and listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble. In order to achieve this, among the many skills required, he or she also requires the teachings and advice of knowledgeable and experienced professionals who came before him or her.
The team at DESIGNSPORT supports bidding cities by providing this kind of support and strategic advice.
Sport architecture and event design are not merely concerned with the design of stadiums but rather with the broader field of knowledge associated with a country’s ambition to develop through and in sport. The field is a cross-cultural, multi-disciplinary industry, which includes and requires the understanding of government strategies and policies, major infrastructure development, stakeholder groups, permanent and temporary building forms and technologies and much, much more.
Engaging sport architects with operational experience as overlay designers at the front end of a project allows the event owners to take advantage of specialised know-how and expertise that will save significant cost while also contributing to innovative, intelligent solutions to their project. Of course these will differ case by case.
At DESIGNSPORT, what's your take on the modern city bid for a major international sporting event? And is it a good investment?
That's a very subjective and complex question.
I think that cities should consider sports-led urban development as a catalyst for designing better living spaces and with the ultimate aim of being
able to possibly accommodate a major event – winning the rights to host the event would be the proverbial ‘cherry on the cake’ rather than the challenging and often cumbersome task that governments need to accommodate and eventually justify. At the moment, sport and sport infrastructure are usually an afterthought, which creates an onerous load on the city that decides to bid for a major event. I think that any given city should plan its sport infrastructure in line with a national strategy for development of sport as part of an overall vision.
In the case of Qatar, the country’s leadership was insightful enough to commission a countrywide masterplan that sets out the future development of sport facilities and infrastructure in the country in line with the National Development Strategy. The study evaluates the city’s requirements for eventually hosting an Olympic Games but proposes how to use this study simply as a catalyst for developing a more liveable and sustainable city. I was personally the local lead designer on this project under Populous and have since been providing advisory services for the development of these plans in a ‘design guardian’ role to entities providing the roll-out plans for implementation. This is a proactive approach to legacy and a positive approach to the notion of investment associated with ambitions for hosting major events.
I think that bidding for major events has become a disconnected process from the ideals of the event itself and that, as professionals in the field, we are being called to find new answers to your question.
Opening ceremony for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
showcase architecture
What's the relationship between a city's sport masterplan and sports architecture? Aren't the two often at odds? How can a city make a meaningful contribution on both accounts?
A sport masterplan is a framework for the development of the sport infrastructure of a city while sport architecture relates to the design of a venue that will host a sporting event – the two are completely different tasks yet must not be at odds with each other.
While the task of masterplanning is concerned with the planning of cities in line with its strategic political and economic ambitions, sport architecture is the visual manifestation of that country’s abilities and ambition. I think that the architecture itself has a responsibility to say something about its time while proposing something about its future – the artistic representation of its historical moment.
By virtue of their scale, stadiums are major engineering projects in which, too often, artistic expression is sacrificed in favour of the engineering solution. At DESIGNSPORT we make it our priority to work with design partners and engineers who are passionate about the artistic value of our buildings and the spaces we design at both ends of the scale – masterplan and venue.
Workers on the Commonwealth Games stadium.
For more information, visit
www.designsport.org
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