The Theatre of Dreams
I love sport. No matter what form, no matter what sport, I love it all and want to examine how that may link with my architectural understanding. I am going to discuss the origins of where my passion for sport may have come from as well as explore why I then gravitate towards sports architecture above other disciplines.
As with any building naming it captures part of the spirit and nature of the building in words and for me as a child, no place did this better than Old Trafford football ground. Now I am no Manchester United Fan, in fact I loathe them to be quite honest, but I have a great appreciation for the symbolism that ‘The Theatre of Dreams’ represents for every United Fan. Having grown up a period where the rebuilding of a new Wembley was far overdue, Old Trafford represented the largest and most challenging stadium for any team to go and play in. Alex Ferguson’s United were the team to beat and the Manchester crowd was the most expectant anywhere in the Premier League for their team to succeed. Their collective hopes and dreams of sporting victory being encapsulated under one roof highlights what the excitement of sport means to so many people.
Sporting venues around the world capture the imagination of spectators through a blend of viewing experience, atmosphere, occasion and tradition. Sporting history gets built up over time and associated with venues worldwide, each venue playing the part of a vital character in the story of each sport. In this country, we associate places such as Twickenham, Wembley, Lord’s, The Crucible, Silverstone, Royal Aintree and Centre Court at Wimbledon as the holy grail for anyone interested in each of their respective sports. They have built up their reputation on years of magic witnessed at those venues, adding to the ‘magic’ when someone experiences heightened emotions when they visit these places.
Sport brings people together in a way that other forms of entertainment are not so successful at. Yes, more people probably watch Love Island each night than the combined attendance of a Match of Test Cricket, but the bringing together of people happens at those venues in a way that plonking yourself down in your front room in front of the TV cannot.
Source: GoCity.com: Blog: Rome-Collesseum
Ancient civilizations have demonstrated that this bringing together of people to observe a common spectacle has been successful for Millenia. Rome’s Colosseum and Circus Maximus are examples of venues where thousands of people would congregate to watch entertainment of the era. Chariot Racing excites all the same neurones within the human body that modern sporting events create today, with the exception of the possibility of witnessing gore and death. They created excitement, nerves, anticipation, wonder and joy like few other things do and modern sport is still playing that pivotal role in society today.
For an architect, creating emotions when experiencing a place or a moment is one of the key criteria. The chance to create a unique memory or emotion is something that should be given the highest priority. Architecture has the chance to awe and inspire and what better way to enhance that experience than by combining that with the feelings sport gives people.
I still remember the first time I visited the new Wembley as a 12yr old and the feeling I had walking over the bridge of Wembley Way. It felt dramatic, it felt important and it felt like it was drawing me towards the venue and I could not turn back even if I had wanted to. Very few things do that to the human brain and I will not likely forget that feeling. It was the first time in my life that I knew I wanted to use my life to create moments like that for other people and make their lives feel more special.
Source: The Construction Index
I love all sorts of sporting venues because I also have a personal appreciation for the ‘grand occasion’. I am a bit of a sucker for history and tradition and I appreciate sporting history for every kind of sport. In my architectural studies, I was never given the chance to design something associated with sport and would have loved the opportunity to do so. I love visiting any venue I can and see the architectural qualities of the space around the pitch/ court/ track etc to see how that heightens the viewing experience. It could be anything from a local town football ground to visiting Twickenham for the World Rugby 7’s, but I have always look around when I go and observe the emotions on people’s faces.
Architecturally at least, it seems like something I would love to specialise in. My favourite building is actually the Mound Stand at Lord’s Cricket Ground designed by Hopkins Architects, for a variety of reasons. For me personally, it represents the perfect viewing experience at the perfect venue. Cricket is my favourite sport and Lord’s is the most famous Cricket Ground in the World and the Mound Stand is in my opinion the perfect building in the perfect setting. An arched brick promenade curved beautifully around the base of the back of the ground, perfectly heighted, proportioned and lit to suit the grandeur its setting whilst remaining very much part of the London landscape. Separated and set slightly back and above the brickwork curves a three tiered façade where the clean and polished nature of the materials highlights the efficiency and lightness of the high tech style used.
Source: Hopkins Architects
I remember sitting in it for the first time a number of years ago and just being completely in awe of the simplicity and complexity of it at the same time. The stands themselves are beautifully proportioned, with the balance of the tier heights and angles of inclination optimising a mass viewing experience. The large ground tier takes up the majority of the elevation and grounds the stand, making the hospitality and top tier feel elegantly suspended above the playing surface. The engineered roof appears to float above the stand and resembles a line of marquees or tents, appropriately in touch with the nature of watching a summer sport. The stand is easy to navigate and feels utterly at ease with its surroundings. I could not imagine it anywhere else, not even if it was moved to another location within the ground.
Lord’s Cricket Ground as a venue is the most traditional and unlike other Cricket grounds, it has stayed true to its identity throughout its period of use. It has been very clearly that it does not wish to become a ‘bowl’ or a ‘colosseum’ like the MCG in Melbourne or Eden Gardens in Kolkata. Lord’s has always maintained that each stand should have its own character and design, with each new addition becoming part of the history and each offering something different. The new Warner stand for example is visibly similar in form and size to the previous stand but has a bold new fan-like roof design, covering a glass wrapped terrace bar sitting above two well proportioned stands. It is modern, summery, and sympathetic to the date of its construction without trying to be flashy and overawe its neighbours.
Source: Populous: Warner Stand
Lord’s Pavilion is unique. It is an astonishing building in its itself, historically and aesthetically elegant in design and proportion. It has uniqueness in its traditions, with the players ‘walk through the Long Room and the MCC Members’ being the most famous of them. It sits opposite Grimshaw and Hopkins Media Centre which resembles a futuristic eye in the sky for commenters and pundits alike and gives them the best possible vantage point to work from. Nicholas Grimshaw’s other addition to Lord’s is the Grand Stand, sitting atop the highest point in the sloping ground and opposite the Mound Stand. Both of them utilise the stretched fabric roof over an engineered frame and both create similar effects on the space below and create a lovely mirrored axis across the ground.
Sporting stands as buildings require a number of elements to be considered great. They need to accommodate an appropriate number of seats and do so for a variety of clientele. Hospitality should feel like hospitality and a pitch-side seat should make someone feel like they can touch the grass with their hand. They need well considered circulation to get people in and out of the ground safely, including players, officials, security and even celebrities and sometimes royalty. They need to be appropriately engineered to withstand the fluctuating seasons and conditions and the weight challenges of supporting so many people, usually out on a non-horizontal cantilevered section for anything first tier and above. They need to have their own character and positively impact the viewing experience, becoming part of the furniture of the ground and history of the venue.
I feel 100% confident that this is what I want to aspire towards and am completely capable of doing so in my career, it is absolutely what I want to pursue.
EDITED NOTE: This blog way written before the UK went into an imposed lockdown due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. I have spent the week preparing to move my girlfriend out of her flat in Canterbury and either on a plane home to Singapore or back to my family home. As a result I do apologise for the shortened length of the post, but I felt as if I should dedicate the time to writing something that’s going to inspire me to keep going strong in the most uncertain of times.
Next week I am going to focus on what I’ve been up to whilst in lockdown and try to inspire people to do whatever they can to keep going!
Until next time,
RK
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