The World Cup goes to sea: they propose building a stadium that could sail

“A floating stadium with 50,000 spectators could forever change the way a World Cup is organized. A venue capable of crossing oceans to become, every four years, the great stage of world football. Innovation always begins with a question that seems too ambitious,” explains Fenwick.

Their proposal is to create the flagship, never better said, of the soccer World Cups. “It would become the great icon of the tournament, moving from one World Cup to the next as a unique infrastructure at the service of international football. It would probably be the first truly global stadium,” adds the architect.

Fenwick founded the firm Fenwick Iribarren Architects in 1990 together with Javier Iribarren. Together, they have collaborated on projects such as the Espanyol stadium, the renovation of the José Alvalade in Lisbon, the Benito Villamarín in Seville or the Nou Mestalla, in Valencia.

In addition, his are the designs of three of the stadiums for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. The famous Stadium 974 stands out, whose exterior structure is made up of ship transport containers. Already in that project they took into account the problem of ‘white elephants’, mega-constructions that large events leave behind and that later do not receive enough use to justify the investment.

The 974 was designed to be completely removable, so that it could disappear if necessary. Now, with the floating stadium, this premise would go further. “Does it make sense to build large stadiums to be used for just a few weeks? Is there an alternative? The answer could be on the sea,” says Fenwick.

Although it sounds like a science fiction idea, the architect considers that it is closer than it seems: “The technology necessary to make it a reality largely already exists. Naval engineering has been building gigantic marine platforms for years. The question is no longer just whether a floating stadium could be built, but whether the time has come”.

It would not be the first floating stadium, although it would be the first of this magnitude. The Float @ Marina Bay, in Singapore, was suspended in the water, on a 120 by 83 meter steel plate, although the slipway was fixed on land. This structure is being replaced by the NS Square precinct, which will no longer be a floating platform.

Furthermore, the Fenwick project promises to be sustainable. “A large retractable roof covered with solar panels would turn the stadium into a small floating power plant. Together with energy storage systems, water production through desalination and rainwater recovery, the venue could operate with a high degree of autonomy,” he summarizes.

For now, the floating stadium is just a project. The difficulties raised are not few. “Stability against waves, security during storms, towing operations between continents, integration with very different ports or the evacuation of tens of thousands of people would require unprecedented engineering solutions. But the history of engineering is full of ideas that seemed impossible until someone decided to build them,” says the architect.

Although it has never materialized, it is not the first time that an architecture studio has raised the possibility of creating a floating stadium. The German firm stadiumconcept considered the possibility for the 2022 World Cup, with the idea of ​​moving the structure to future World Cup venues, based on a design that they began to conceive in 2010. It was also proposed by Florian Busch Architects in 2016 for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Stadium.

“The island stadium represents an invitation to think about what the great sports infrastructures of the 21st century could be like. It may never be built exactly as we imagine it today. But the idea opens a debate that goes far beyond football: how to organize major international events in a more efficient, more sustainable way and with a more useful legacy for future generations,” concludes Fenwick.