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    19 views9 pages

    The Architectura Review

    Uploaded by

    alejo_ocho

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
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    of 9
    SUR —————— Europe's latter-day gladiators congregated in Portugal this sun huff and pulf their way chrough Euro 2004, the 12th quadrennial European soccer championships. Sporting spectacles have become the ‘modern equivalent of Roman circuses in popular imagination, but beyond the dramas on the pitch, perhaps the most remarkable achievement ofthis footballing fee décé, was that ic was staged in, Portugal, one of the continent's more impoverished countries. Asa major sporting event (in soccer terms, second only to the World Cup). Euro 2004 presented considerable logistical and financial challenges, ‘exacerbated by increased fears of terrorism, Nonetheless, from Braga in the noreh to Faro in che southern tip of the Algarve, eight cites, played host to the international soccer circus and its stellar performers, In preparation forthe championships, the Portuguese authorities embarked on an ambitious programme of stadium building and infrastructure improvements. Seven new stadiums were constructed and three others renovated ata cost of around 550 million euros (G370 million). quarter of this came from the state, withthe balance raised by local municipalities and che clubs themselves, who will profic in the long term from new grounds and improved facilities. Though there was some inevitable scepticism about the benefits of spending SPORTS SPECTACLE Carved into a mountainsi le, Braga’s new stadium is a radical reinvention of the sports amphitheatre. FOOTBALL STADIUM, BRAGA, PORTUGAL ARCHITEC EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA such vast sums in this way, the official rationale is that the tournament will have the effect of boosting tourism, already one of Portugal's most lucrative industries, and that better transport links and new hotels will help to sustain its long-term growth, Sporting fiestas are now rezarded as 2 powerful impetus for urban and economic development, but their legacies ean be mixed. The most successful example in recene times was the Barcelona Olympics of 1992 (AR August 1992), which kick-starteda selsmic city-wide regeneration that stil continues today: but the 2002 World Cup in japan and South Korea (AR October 200!) produced a surfeit of expensive stadiums, some of which are now hardly used, as neither country hasa strong footballing culture. In Portugal, which does, ambitions are more realistic, with all 10 tournament stadiums being tenanted by existing clubs, the majority of which are in the country’s Premier League. ‘The new stadiums (all by Portuguese architects) are a mixed bag, with le variation on the generic stadium type of object building in the landscape that has persisted since Roman times as che conventional model forthe gladiatorial/sports amphitheatre, Th stunning exception isthe new Braga stadium, where Eduardo Souto de Moura radically re-envisages the amphitheatrical form asa tent dug inca a mountainside, in which the man-made artifact simultaneously becomes part of and emerges from the natural landscape. In another departure from the familar stadium form, Souto de Moura dispenses with seating behind the goals, craditionally the haunts ofthe more riotous, dle-haré supporters attracted by tribal camaraderie and cheaper seat prices. In Latin countr ‘often the setting of elaborately staged expressions of club devotion, but the views are generally the worst in the ground. Eliminating the ‘unvass perhaps an over-optimistic speculation on the social decline of tribalism, but Souto de Moura regards it as simple expedient chat reflects both football's evolving culeure and the increasingly exacting, demands ofthe paying public. His elegantly economical solution of wo long grandstands, each seating 15,000 spectators in two overlapping tiers, is intended to provide optimum viewing conditions. Football ‘today is entertainment, ust ike cinema, theatre and television, he szserts, ‘Today, no one would be willing to watch a piece by Peter Handke from behind che goal with continuous zoom shets.” Since the ewelfth century, the historic, northern city of Brags has been Portugal's eccleslastic eapital and the seat ofthe country's renbishops. Religion and its various festivals still playa strong part in civic life ~on 2 wooded slope to the east ofthe city is the famous bracoque Escadaria of Bom Jesus, a monumental, processional staircase winding up to pilgrimage church chat attracts large festive erowds ‘throughout the year. On hillside to the north, Souto de Moura's stadium dominates the surrounding landscape with an equally baroque theatricality, forming a new object of secular veneration, However, che stadium is more than just anew home for the local football veam, itis also the focus of a new urban park planned around the slopes of Monte Castro and along the course of the river Cavado. Here the northern edge of the ety peters out into bucolic countryside, ‘andthe municipality has big plans to develop a park for sports and recreation, A swimming pool and sports hall are in the pipeline, as are ‘extensive new landscaping and infrastructure, Souto de Moura's shrine to soccer is just the firs sep. the curvas are FOOTBALL STADIUM, BRAGA, PORTUGAL EDUARDO SOUTO DE MOURA Initially, a site lower down the hilland nearer the river was earmarked for the stadium, but the potential risk of flooding during construction (the Minho region has one ofthe wercest climates in Europe) was considered too great. Moving the building up the hillside presenced a different challenge in the creation of a huge rockclined amphitheatre that cradles the new stadium ina craggy, primeval embrace. Ina ‘geotechnical feat of Herculean proportions, one milion cubic metres ‘of granite were blasted out ofthe hillside and then crushed to make the aggregate used inthe stadium's concrete structure, s0 the building literally grew out of the ste ‘The carving and shaping ofthe hillside was achieved by a succession cof small, precise explosions to form a 30m-high cefe in the rock chat frames the south-east end of the stadium, Studded by 2 series of steel pins to prevent landslides, the granite cliff looms over the pitch: the mute drama of manipulated geology replacing the more usual human animation. Its an unequivocally powerful tableau ~ the bald bare rock face is barely a couple of metres from the playing surface — butt also posits the slightly surreal spectacle of offtarget shots rieocheting unpredictably off the granite. At the eppesite end, undulating banks of earth landscaped with grass and trees meld the structure more gently into the landscape, emphasising its strong topographic character. ‘This intimate relationship between the man-made and nature hat {echoes of the ruins of Delphi and other Classical Greek sites, and Souto de Moura's explorations of these prompted reflections on architecture exposed by excavation. Approached from the main ‘external plaza on the north-east side, che stadium resembles a modern archaeological relic poised in an excavated landscape. The two ‘grandstands frame the pitch in symmetrical tiers of seating, but are expressed in quite different ways. The south-west stand is dug into the hillside co create a Piranesian undererofe of stir, lits and concourses set against a backdrop of living rock. Light is drawn down into the bowels ofthis Stygian labyrinth through a series of vertical shafts that extend upwards to a plateau-like terrace wedged into the hillside at inipinyers nein enn

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