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11 Innovative Football Stadiums from Around the World

11 Innovative Football Stadiums from Around the World

When flipping through your favorite online sportsbook, you will see some fantastic football stadiums from across the world. Most of them are the home of your favorite football teams. Are these ironic stadiums iconic because they are the best or due to their historical significance?

Allianz Arena, Munich, Germany

The Allianz Arena, designed by Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron and completed in 2005, serves as the home stadium for Munich's two major local football teams. The external coating of the stadium is the most notable element, consisting of 2,874 transparent diamond metal panels of ETFE.

These panels may be individually lighted in the colors red, blue, and white, with red and blue representing the two local teams and white supporting the German national team. The roof membranes are self-cleaning and ventilated and weigh just one-third the weight of glass.

National Stadium of Kaohsiung, Zuoying District, Taiwan

The National Stadium (Kaohsiung) was designed by Japanese architect Toyo Ito for the 2009 World Games. The semi-spiral, dragon-shaped stadium's roof is outfitted with 8,845 solar panels to supplement the stadium's electricity and potentially power up to 80% of the neighborhood. The stadium generates around 1.1 million kilowatt-hours of electricity each year.

Ireland's Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland

The Aviva Stadium is Ireland's national football stadium. The stadium has been recognized as one of the most creative in terms of sustainability and site responsiveness. The presence of dwellings on the north and south corners of the site hampered populous architects, who built undulating structures of varying heights to avoid blocking light and ventilation to the adjacent villages.

Furthermore, the exterior is wrapped with polycarbonate louvers and glass, which reflect the sky and provide the illusion of a lighter mass.

First National Bank Stadium, Johannesburg, South Africa

This revolutionary football stadium, popularly known as Soccer City, was developed by Populous architects and Boogertman Urban Edge + Partners and served as an emblem for the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The construction was created to honor African culture, with a likeness to the appearance of traditional local pottery and a one-of-a-kind façade screened by locally obtained fiber-cement panels of clay colors to resemble a fire mosaic.

Japan's Showa Denko Dome, Oita, Japan

The Showa Denko Dome, formerly known as the Oita Bank Dome and designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, serves as the home stadium for the local League team. The facility is known for its retractable roof, which resembles the blinking of an eye, and is hence known as the Big Eye Stadium.

The two sides of the roof are raised and lowered along a spine as needed, using wires operated by winches at the bottom. In addition, an open hole is left between the roof and the spectator seats to provide natural ventilation and views of the surrounding countryside.

Melbourne's AAMI Park, Melbourne, Australia

AAMI Park, Melbourne's first rectangular stadium, was designed by Cox Architecture and finished in 2010. The roof structure for the seating area of this innovative football stadium is made up of a series of interlocking geodesic domes with triangular facets panelized with a combination of glass and metal. It is also outfitted with LED lights that change colors and patterns to match the events.

This building method employs around half the steel necessary for a typical stadium.

Warsaw National Stadium, Poland

The National Stadium in Warsaw was opened in 2011 as the home stadium for the Polish national football team. The outer façade is made of anodized expanded metal wire mesh that has been painted red and silver to match Poland's national colors.

Steel wire netting and a textile membrane form the roof, suspended on freestanding steel supports with slanted tie rods.

Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta, Georgia, USA

The Mercedes-Benz Stadium is home to the Atlanta Falcons (American football) and the Atlanta United soccer team. The stadium is an absolute technical marvel that offers fans some of the most extraordinary match-day experiences.

The tower is capped with a one-of-a-kind retractable roof consisting of eight triangular panels that open and close along separate tracks, much like a camera aperture. A big oculus lets in plenty of light when it’s opened, illuminating the arena.

Hokkaido Dome in Sapporo, Japan

The Hokkaido Dome was finished in 2001 with excellent futuristic characteristics that make it one of the most inventive football stadiums still admired today. The roof was intended to allow the snow to slide off and alleviate stress on the structure in reaction to the local environment.

The retractable grass football pitch, which slides in and out of the stadium through a pneumatic mechanism in just a few hours, is the stadium's most distinctive feature. This "hovering soccer field" is built within the dome on top of artificial baseball grass.

Brasilia's National Stadium (Estadio Nacional)

The Estadio Nacional Brasilia, built in a city designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, was restored for the 2014 FIFA World Cup to represent and maintain the city's architectural heritage and culture.

The concrete "forest of columns" that supports a double-layered suspended concrete and a transparent membrane is the defining element of this esplanade. The stadium is also noted for its environmentally friendly features, such as solar modules in the roof membrane and rainwater collecting systems.

Estadio do Maracana, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

The Estadio do Maracana in Rio de Janeiro was formerly the world's largest stadium. The stadium's capacity has since been lowered to 73,531, yet it is still the most remarkable building of its sort in South America. Seven Brazilian architects created the original stadium's design. The Maracana, on the other hand, has undergone multiple refurbishment programs since then, most notably to prepare the venue for its participation in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.

Our favorite stadiums remain our favorite not because they have the best archaeological design that football stadiums offer but because they are the homes of many of our fondest memories. Maybe as time passes and the new generation creates memories with the modern stadiums, these will slowly replace the classics.




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