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The Rock Stadium
The Rock Stadium
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Other Projects by MZ Architects
The Rock Stadium
The Rock Stadium: A Landscape Reworked
Set in the desert landscape, the Rock Stadium celebrates the game it hosts as much as it
celebrates the site in which it lays. Recognizing the powerful language of its
surrounding and intelligently approaching the issue of scale and the
intermittent use of the stadium architecture, the project sinks its 200,000sqm
structure into the ground and turns the Jebel Hafeet rocky mountain into one of
its main features.
When MZ Architects were approached to design a stadium at the heart of
Al Ain in the UAE, the designers were so inspired by the site that they were
led to intricately work with it in order to achieve a visionary design that
merges architecture and landscape, blurring the boundaries of the built and the
natural and creating a space that allows the visitor to interact with the desert
landscape as much as with the stadium activity.
Sunken into the cooler depth of the desert sand, the
Rock Stadium, like a hidden treasure, presents itself to the visitor as a
series of sharply inclined planes emerging from the ground. These planes, in
addition to the volcanic mountain backdrop in front of which they lay, define
the space of the stadium and its related activities and create a magnificent
place that allows for the conglomeration of a large number of visitors in the
heart of the vast landscape.
Inspired by ancient examples of amphitheatres and
temples, the project refers to the first greek amphitheatre that worked with
the topographic landscape of its site, taking it a step further and challenging
the site to new measures by sculpting it, refining its elements and playing
with the mass and void relationship. Its grand entrance into the
underground creates a monumental approach to the space of events, similar to
the imposing entrance of the Temple of Anahita. Whether it is the long and narrow corridors connecting the parking
space to the stadium through scattered openings and perforations into the main
rock façade, or the breaking planes emerging from the ground and creating at
their fractured intersections carved out passageways that lead the visitor into
its underground heart, the entrance to the stadium is a magnificent one.
Working with the existing site
and using the local materials, the architects find themselves playing with a
carefully studied palette of rock and sand that not only lead to the main
façade/visual panels system adhering to the site but also create a more
sustainable approach to construction and design where no material is forgotten
or displaced and where all is reused.
Careful patterns are created
with the recuperated stone, creating interestingly designed man-made strata
patterns that emphasize the natural characteristic of the site.
Issues of scale, timing and activity were highly investigated by the
architects and by forcing the stadium into the ground, the designers were
strategically able to deal with the challenging issue of massiveness of scale
and of the often voided space. The project not only gracefully blends itself
into its surrounding but plays on the notion of distance to alternate between a
strong camouflage at distance and a forceful presence at close range.
A sculpted landscape or a defined void, the Rock Stadium becomes a jewel
in the desert which lights up at night allowing the active evenings to turn the
stadium into a massive light beam that emerges from the ground straight to the
higher sky and creates a symbol, a sign, a guiding agent to the national event
and place of activity in an otherwise sign-less desert environment.
This simple yet majestic design
hides great achievements and brilliant experimentations with issues of scale,
monumentality and locality, hence allowing the project to create a strong sense
of place in an otherwise homogenous area of the vast expanding desert.
The Rock Stadium project has won the “Retail and Leisure Award” at the 2012 MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards and the “Best
Future Building of the Year” Award at the 2012 Emirates Glass LEAF Awards.
Set in the desert landscape, the Rock Stadium celebrates the game it hosts as much as it
celebrates the site in which it lays. Recognizing the powerful language of its
surrounding and intelligently approaching the issue of scale and the
intermittent use of the stadium architecture, the project sinks its 200,000sqm
structure into the ground and turns the Jebel Hafeet rocky mountain into one of
its main features.
When MZ Architects were approached to design a stadium at the heart of
Al Ain in the UAE, the designers were so inspired by the site that they were
led to intricately work with it in order to achieve a visionary design that
merges architecture and landscape, blurring the boundaries of the built and the
natural and creating a space that allows the visitor to interact with the desert
landscape as much as with the stadium activity.
Sunken into the cooler depth of the desert sand, the
Rock Stadium, like a hidden treasure, presents itself to the visitor as a
series of sharply inclined planes emerging from the ground. These planes, in
addition to the volcanic mountain backdrop in front of which they lay, define
the space of the stadium and its related activities and create a magnificent
place that allows for the conglomeration of a large number of visitors in the
heart of the vast landscape.
Inspired by ancient examples of amphitheatres and
temples, the project refers to the first greek amphitheatre that worked with
the topographic landscape of its site, taking it a step further and challenging
the site to new measures by sculpting it, refining its elements and playing
with the mass and void relationship. Its grand entrance into the
underground creates a monumental approach to the space of events, similar to
the imposing entrance of the Temple of Anahita. Whether it is the long and narrow corridors connecting the parking
space to the stadium through scattered openings and perforations into the main
rock façade, or the breaking planes emerging from the ground and creating at
their fractured intersections carved out passageways that lead the visitor into
its underground heart, the entrance to the stadium is a magnificent one.
Working with the existing site
and using the local materials, the architects find themselves playing with a
carefully studied palette of rock and sand that not only lead to the main
façade/visual panels system adhering to the site but also create a more
sustainable approach to construction and design where no material is forgotten
or displaced and where all is reused.
Careful patterns are created
with the recuperated stone, creating interestingly designed man-made strata
patterns that emphasize the natural characteristic of the site.
Issues of scale, timing and activity were highly investigated by the
architects and by forcing the stadium into the ground, the designers were
strategically able to deal with the challenging issue of massiveness of scale
and of the often voided space. The project not only gracefully blends itself
into its surrounding but plays on the notion of distance to alternate between a
strong camouflage at distance and a forceful presence at close range.
A sculpted landscape or a defined void, the Rock Stadium becomes a jewel
in the desert which lights up at night allowing the active evenings to turn the
stadium into a massive light beam that emerges from the ground straight to the
higher sky and creates a symbol, a sign, a guiding agent to the national event
and place of activity in an otherwise sign-less desert environment.
This simple yet majestic design
hides great achievements and brilliant experimentations with issues of scale,
monumentality and locality, hence allowing the project to create a strong sense
of place in an otherwise homogenous area of the vast expanding desert.
The Rock Stadium project has won the “Retail and Leisure Award” at the 2012 MIPIM Architectural Review Future Project Awards and the “Best
Future Building of the Year” Award at the 2012 Emirates Glass LEAF Awards.
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