FC Barcelona has entrenched ties with the city’s locals and the Camp Nou stadium ranks among Barcelona’s top tourist attractions; considering the abundance of cultural riches in Catalonia, it shows just how intertwined football has become with the region’s capital.
But, like many other clubs’ stadiums, there comes a time when renovation is necessary. For FC Barcelona this has meant a €360m (£318m) investment in Camp Nou, part of a larger €600m (£530m) project dubbed Espai Barça to ensure that the club equals, and even improves on, the world’s best football arenas. The Espai Barça project’s completion is scheduled for the 2022-23 season.
Although consideration was made to move into other premises, the fact that the club has 85,000 season ticket holders meant that this would not be welcomed by its loyal members. Therefore, the club was tasked with a challenging concept of renovating a 60-year-old stadium, which has only received three additions in its history: the addition of a third tier in time for the 1982 World Cup, a new first tier in 1994, and a club museum.
The swathe of changes include an upgrade of Wi-Fi technology to support the surge in data usage, improvements in VIP hospitality services and an increase in capacity by 6,000 seats.
The changes are also focused on improving the quality of the stadium rather than the quantity of seats. This will be facilitated by constructing an underground parking area to improve access for fans, making the first tier of the stadium more vertical to improve visibility and adding Catalan experiences to the stadium before and after the match.
“This means that coming to Camp Nou would mean more than just a 90-minute game, which is what it is now,” says Jordi Moix, the commissioner of Espai Barça.
A roof will be installed onto the stadium to ensure the home atmosphere is captured to spur on Barça, but more importantly, to ensure that the fans watching inside are protected from rain or even sunlight on the hottest days.
And, in keeping with the fact that the Camp Nou is a sightseeing attraction in a country with a warm climate, visitors will have an open view of the stadium from the outside.
“Most stadiums are covered with a façade, which makes sense for cold climate countries, but Barcelona has a good conditions so we wanted to provide a good city view for the many tourists that come here” explains Takeyuki Katsuya of Nikken Sekkei, the lead designer of Future Camp Nou.
ARENA: Multi-purpose arena with a main hall capacity of 12,500, seating an additional 2,000 in an adjoining hall
ICE RINK: At 30m x 60m, Future Palau Blaugrana boasts an olympic sized rink
PITCHES: Two new replacement football pitches for FCBEscola, the flagship FC Barcelona football school aimed at girls and boys between 6 and 18 years of age
BUS STATION: Buses will now be able to park on the Barcelona campus on match days, without obstructing pedestrian walkways
ESTADI JOHAN CRUYFF: A new 6,000-seat capacity stadium at Barcelona's training facilities at Les Corts campus, 8.5km from Future Camp Nou. The stadium will be served by a surface parking facility with space for 700 vehicles
The trick is in the tech
Yoshiyuki Uchiyama, an architect who worked on the Future Camp Nou project, says that back when it was first constructed in the mid-50s, the designing process was completed using paper and pens. Since then, there has been huge developments in architectural design with building information modelling (BIM) and 3D Computer Aided Design (CAD).
Without any digital information about Camp Nou infrastructure, the design team had to rely on 3D camera scans of the building as a starting point.
“This was an excellent start, but it didn’t help us to know what element was a wall or a column and so a human still had to add those attributes onto our system,” says Uchiyama.
Once this information is added, the architects and engineers know the measurements, materials, safety requirements and a number of other details which can help them with the construction process.
There are other technologies being used too; for the installation of lifts and escalators that will help the fans easily get to and from the second and third tiers, the design team used crowd-simulation technology. This helped them to understand how fast a visitor can get from their seat to the outside plaza, ensuring that the new stairs, lifts and escalators were located properly for safety and general ease of use.
The sustainability of the stadium has also been considered with new technologies including a rainwater harvesting system to water the pitch, and photovoltaic panels to help power floodlights. Meanwhile, the roof will use innovative fabrics with varying transparencies to ensure that there isn’t a strong shadow on the pitch – a nuisance for TV viewers when matches are played during the day.
With an eye to the future, Moix mentions the idea of automated vehicles in the years to come that can further improve the mobility to and from the stadium. This is what many designers believe football stadia will be like in ten or 20 years’ time – more than just about the sport, but about part of the city’s larger ecosystem.
Espai Barça has taken this on board with its idea to have experiences outside of the Future Nou Camp, along with shops, restaurants, a team store, museum and environmentally friendly parks.
Stadiums of the future will have advanced VR and AR enabling spectators to experience the match from multiple angles or different seats, while AI will manage the logistics of every aspect of a fans’ day out – from transport, to hospitality to additional fan experiences, FC Barcelona is taking the first steps in getting there.
LED BOARDS: Four state-of-the-art HD LED boards will be positioned around the roof edge, displaying video content, sponsorships and the match score
MEDIA WALLS: Displaying full-motion graphics and text messages, the new media walls will be used to engage crowds, enhancing the atmosphere of the match
Wi-Fi ACCESS POINTS: Already one of the most connected stadiums in the world, an increased number of access points combined with the open architectural style of Future Camp Nou will raise standards of connectivity within stadiums worldwide
DISTRIBUTED SOUND SYSTEMS: Speakers equipped with onboard electronics work together to distribute sound evenly and coherently through the stadium
LED PITCH LIGHTING AND THEATRICAL LIGHTING: Enhanced LED pitch lighting will improve broadcast images of the games, whilst theatrical light shows will be used to create an atmospheric experience for fans, before and after the game
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This article was originally published by WIRED UK
