As much as I'd love my life to be centred around all things blogging and generally expressing my often maligned opinion on the world of sport, it's unfortunately not the way it has turned out. Instead, I spend my days doing the day job - being an Architect.
So it's a nice coincidence when the world's of architecture and sport collide and offer up something new to look at, and that's exactly what has happened this week in France.
Talk has been ongoing for years about the Fédération Française de Rugby (FFR) building their own home in France - the Twickenham or Murrayfield equivalent, if you like. The FFR launched a design competition last year and Populous, the architects most notably behind London's Olympic Stadium, have been announced the winners this week. The firm, in cooperation with French practice Ateliers 2/3/4/ have designed a stadium that looks, well, very unlike a stadium.
The new Grand Stade du FFR
Like most equivalent new facilities, there is much focus on the future flexibility of the stadium. It's clear that rugby unions need to optimise their income from what is often their single biggest asset, and the FFR have been no different in their approach to the design brief.
Legendary French full back Serge Blanco, a member of the judging panel and vice president of the FFR, confirmed this approach and the response to the brief by Populous. “The proposal made by Populous and Ateliers 2/3/4/ proved to be the most suitable to meet the objectives that we have set for the medium and long term. It fits perfectly with the idea that we are creating the multifunctional stage par excellence", he said.
The stadium will seat around 82,000 fans
Ben Vickery, senior principal of Populous, said “The Grand Stade of the Fédération Française de Rugby will be not only the new home of French Rugby, but a cultural catalyst for the district of Essonne as well as France.”
Hold on a minute - Essonne? That's right, the FFR are building their home of rugby 25 kilometres south of the capital Paris. Given the stick that the Stade de France has had over the years for being too far out from the city centre, despite only being 2 or 3 kilometres away in St Denis, it seems odd that this new 82,000 seat behemoth be situated so far out from the city.
The FFR are going for the alternative stadium look
Time will tell how successful a ploy this turns out to be, but for now, we have some pictures from Populous of their monolithic creation, said to be inspired by the idea of a 'fortified town delivering both hospitality and protection'.
I'll let you be the architectural critics on this one. What do you think of the design, it's proposed location and the very need for it's existence?
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