The first stadium built with containers will be located in Qatar, for the famous 2022 World Cup, it will be removable and reusable.

The best combination of business success is linked (almost always) to a shallow and detailed study of the market and the needs of potential customers. But, obviously, this does not guarantee anything, then you have to be up to date in terms of technological, artistic and social. Sustainability has become a crucial parameter in most countries, and, of course, should be the cross-cutting criteria in our day to day.

This is what the Spanish architecture studio Fenwick Iribarren architects has imbued in its DNA, responsible that today, here, we show you its most innovative project: the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium, a sports building that will cover an area of ​​120,500 square meters and will have a capacity for 40,000 spectators. The most incredible thing about this stadium is that it will be the first one capable of dismantling, moving and relocating to another place.

The client is none other than the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, the administrators of the organization and planning of the infrastructures for the World Cup that will be held in Qatar in the year 2,022. It has been a direct commission of the Committee, without any international competition, and will be located on the outskirts of Doha, capital of Qatar, covering a total of about 450,000 square meters by the sea.

The reason for choosing this location, facing the Persian Gulf, is strategic, from this place it will be very easy to transfer the elements of the stadium, which will arrive by boat to the pier, near where they will be installed. It is the seventh stage presented by the organizers and they calculate that the works will have finished in 2020, long before the event. There will be several matches of the tournament, although the most important (a priori) will be the one that will take place in the quarterfinals.

Fenwick Iribarren has worked alongside the Schlaich Bergermann Partner engineering studio and sustainability experts Hilson Moran for the final design of the assignment. The sports complex will consist of units that will come inside containers, each one will house seats, toilets, stands, as well as all the necessary elements for the installation. All this will fit into a steel structure that allows easy and quick assembly of the units.

The video created by the architects perfectly exemplifies what they intend to build: several ships will transport the containers to the pier, once there, the stadium will be executed, assembling the structural elements, the stands, the roof panels and the compartments of seats. After the World Cup, the complex will be eliminated and it can be located wherever you want in different ways: all parts will be reusable. In the end, there will be a huge green park in the capital of Qatar.

The reduction of the carbon footprint is therefore guaranteed, due to a lower proportion of materials that will be used compared to other constructions of the same nature (the stadium will be very bright). It allows an exhaustive control of the materials, demanding a smaller amount of constructive waste, and the reuse guarantees a long life thanks to the versatility with which its parts have been designed.

Hassan Al Thawadi, the head of the organization said: «We trust that this innovative and sustainable concept will be an inspiration for stadium developers and architects around the world» and added: «Innovation has always been fundamental to our plans for offer a historic World Cup leaving a legacy for Qatar and the world, and there is no better example of this than the design of the Ras Abu Aboud Stadium. ”

There are many advantages offered by modular buildings, which we can already enjoy in single-family homes, but so far no one had considered going so far, at most, pavilions have been designed that can be given different use. When it is executed and we see its effectiveness and functionality, we can better evaluate if it «compensates» the realization of this type of reconvertible macro-structures.

The Spanish architecture studio, formed by Mark Fenwick and Javier Iribarren, is responsible for two other stadiums that will be part of the sports tournament with more fans in the world, the Qatar Foundation Stadium, also in Doha, and Al Thumama Stadium (don’t miss out The videos). The studio is the creator of the Fifth Tower of Madrid, Caleido, 160 meters high, which will house sanitary and teaching uses, so they will be busy in the coming years.