24th September 2007
The largest soccer stadium in Europe is receiving a €250m facelift. The Nou Camp which see’s the likes of Ronaldinho and soccer’s elite celebrated it’s 50th birthday on the 24th September 2007. Like all great celebrates when they turn 50, the stadium will be getting a facelift to shed a few years off it’s aging exterior.
Lord Foster has been chosen to redesign the 98,000 capacity stadium. The exterior will be covered by multi-coloured tiles in the club’s colours, blue and scarlet. The result will be a mosaic effect which will very much emulate the style of Barcelonia’s world famous historical architect, Antoni Gaudi. When walking around the city you will already see this mosaic effect on benches and in the Gaudi park (Park Guell). The re-design of the stadium will therefore fit in and complement the city very well.
The structure of the Nou Camp stadium will also change in order to increase capacity to 106,000 but the club has insisted that the current asymmetrical shape and integrity will remain the same.
Construction will begin in 2009 and the completion date is set between 2011 and 2012.
Lord Foster has a sound portfolio of architectural successes. In London he was responsible for the millennium bridge, which initially was announced unstable and closed to the public until structural issues were resolved, and the Swiss Re building. Lord Foster’s work is not unknown to the Catalans. The Collserola tower which overlooks Barcelona was constructed in 1992 for the Olympic games.
