London’s woo architects to work on Barcelona’s Camp Nou stadium revamp

The revamp forms part of Barcelona’s wider Espai Barça project, worth a total £1.3 billion, which also includes the delivery of a new Palau Blaugrana arena and the wide-ranging Campus Barça development.

The 20-strong woo architects will work alongside three other companies as part of Limak’s design and delivery team: Spanish company Ghesa, Australian engineer Robert Bird Group and crowd movement specialist Movement Strategies.

The King’s Cross-based architectural practice has a wide experience of working on sports architecture and stadium redevelopment projects. The firm was set up in 2014 by the team which led the design of the London 2012 Olympics on behalf of the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.

Reflecting on the Camp Nou appointment, woo architects founder Kevin Owens said it was ‘a privilege to be working on such a landmark project’.

He added: ‘Our work will provide a legacy for a new age of sporting achievement and visually transform the stadium to respond to the needs and aspirations of 21st century audiences.’

Woo architects’ three-year contract started last month. The project is scheduled to complete in 2026.

Limak Construction was appointed to the scheme in January 2023. Barcelona FC vice-president Elena Fort said that Limak’s bid ‘technically guarantees we will stick to our deadlines and guarantees that it can be financed in these markets’.

She added: ‘We want Spotify Camp Nou to be built in the shortest possible time at the best price; two things that this company can do.’

Meanwhile, in February 2023, Barcelona FC appointed Japanese architecture studio Nikken Sekkei to continue its involvement in the wider Espai Barça project as ‘design guardian’ for the new stadium.

Nikken Sekkei, in conjunction with Pascual y Ausió Arquitectes, were the winners of the competition to design the new Spotify Camp Nou in 2016. The firm will now work to guarantee the continuity of the initial concept and consider ways of integrating new proposals seamlessly into the project.

On completion, the project will expand Camp Nou’s capacity from 98,000 to 105,000.

The first tier structure of the stadium will not change but the underground corridors will be removed and access improved. A new third tier is proposed to improve accessibility and comfort, along with a double VIP ring between the second and third tiers.

A new roof will incorporate elements to boost sustainability, such as a geothermal system and a district heating and cooling system. It will be covered with 30,000m² of solar panels to generate photovoltaic energy. One of the priorities of the new project is sustainability, with the aim to provide more spaces for electric cars and more solutions for sustainable mobility.

Plans to overhaul the stadium have been in the pipeline since 2007 when Foster + Partners, the architect behind Wembley Stadium, revealed its competition-winning scheme for the Catalan club. This would have added an upper tier underneath a new cable-net roof structure.

However the project, which had originally been scheduled to complete in 2011, stalled due to the financial crisis and the club decided to look at a number of other options, including building a new stadium.

In 2014, it was revealed that Barcelona FC had scrapped any possibility of building a new ground and had reverted to redeveloping its existing, iconic home - though Foster + Partners was not asked to work on that scheme.

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