Construction is underway on a brand new 40,000 seater stadium in Doha, built primarily using recycled shipping containers
British, German and Spanish firms Hilson Moran, Schlaich Bergermann Partner and Fenwick Iribarren Architects have designed the stadium with sustainability in mind and the its expected to be awarded a four-star Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) certification.
China International Marine Containers (CIMC) is supplying 990 shipping containers for the project. The design is a modular format and will therefore need less materials to build. It will also have a smaller carbon footprint and produce less waste during construction compared to construction methods used in the past.
Modular building block sections will also be used with shipping containers. These will be removable elements such as shops, food & drink outlets, toilets, stairways and seating areas. This versatility will enable to the stadium to be used for numerous other venues in future and not just football. The Ras Abu Aboud Stadium is being built with a steel skeleton to support the shipping containers that will be stacked to form the main body of the building.
Construction is due to be completed by June 2020 which should be well in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Work will be complete in about three years making it one of the fasting construction projects of its kind. Its one of twelve stadiums being built or adapted especially for the tournament. The stadium will be easily disassembled and reassembled elsewhere once the football event has finished. It could even be combined into smaller venues such as hockey, basketball, tennis or cycling. The containers can also be used to house refugees, according to CIMC.
Hassan Al Thawadi, secretary general of Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy, said: “Innovation has always been central to our plans for delivering a historic Fifa World Cup that leaves a legacy for Qatar and the world, and there is no better example of this than the design of Ras Abu Aboud Stadium.”
“This venue offers the perfect legacy, capable of being reassembled in a new location in its entirety or built into numerous small sports and cultural venues,” said H.E. Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy.” All of this in a stadium that delivers the atmosphere fans expect at a World Cup and which we will build in a more sustainable way than ever before. I’m delighted with this design and confident that Ras Abu Aboud will become a blueprint for future mega-event planners to follow.”
“We are delighted to be part of another 2022 FIFA World Cup™ project, and are very proud that our design for Ras Abu Aboud Stadium will go down in history as the first-ever moveable and reusable FIFA World Cup™ stadium,” commented FI-A Senior Partner and architect, Mark Fenwick. “We are confident that this innovative and sustainable concept will be an inspiration for stadium developers and architects around the world, capable of creating aesthetically pleasing venues that offer new legacy possibilities.”
