THE BIG I: The Future of Stadiums

Millions of people around the country watched football this weekend and in honor of the gridiron, today's Big I is all about the stadiums of the future.

Let's start with these designs submitted by Albert Speer and Partner as part of Qatar's bid for World Cup 2022.  The Middle Eastern country can get well above 100 degrees in the summer.  That kind of heat challenged the designers to come up with a cooling plan.  The stadiums will be cooled using solar energy in order to guarantee optimal match conditions.  All stadiums are easily accessible via public or personal transportation.  Qatar is just one of the countries trying to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.  The final decision is coming in December.

To see more pictures of the stadiums pitched by Qatar for The FIFA World Cup, click here.

Next, lets go to Barcelona, Spain.  Camp Nou Stadium is currently the largest in Europe and it's getting a facelift.  These pictures are from Foster and Partners.  They plan to expand the seating to allow for 106,000 fans.  Right now the Camp Nou seats just under 100,000.  The brightly-colored mosaic outer skin will be wrapped around the building and extend to the new roof.  The stadium is getting new facilities including hospitality and public areas.  And on match nights, the stadium will glow.

To see pictures of the re-design for Camp Nou Stadium, click here.

And finally let's go to China.  This new sports park was designed by the architecture studio Populous.  It will be located in the historic city of Datong near Beijing.  The park is made up of a series of titanium shells and will include a 30,000 seat stadium, an 8,000 seat arena, along with some other multi-use buildings.  The designers at Populous told the magazine "eVolo" that the inspiration for the design came from nearby caves that are symbolic of the rich cultural heritage of the region.

To see pictures of the Datong sports park design, click here.