Brazil 2014 Summit

After attending the two summits (Nov18 & Nov 19), here are some thoughts and comments about this interesting and productive experience.
At first we had an introduction on how Brazil stands at this moment and what its main cities have to offer. It was important to point out that Brazil currently is undergoing an important growth in its economy and it has been predicted to become one of the five largest economies in the world in the decades to come. Therefore, the coming World Cup in 2014 and the Olympics in 2016 not only are going to reinforce it, but is also Brazil’s springboard to show its strength to the entire world. For this reason, the question many of the architects had to ask themselves prior to entering the competition for the stadiums was how they ambitioned Brazil in 2014?
The summit was divided into two days because twelve architects involved in each of the 12 projects for The World Cup for 2014 were there, so 6 were introduced on each day in order to dedicate a good amount of time to each project. After they were all done presenting their visions and projects for Brazil 2014 a moderator would invite the audience to ask questions.
Many good questions were aroused in these meetings and the architect’s responded to them as best they could base on their projects. Some questions regarded the topics I have already given some thought which is good, for example: what happens when the event is over?, how to manage the flow of traffic at the place, or what to do when the stadium gets located in a decentralized place? How to introduce sustainability to the stadia? Etc. The solution from an architect’s view was to make the upper tier a separate entity able to change or be replaced in the near future like in the case of the new London stadium, project he’s also involved with. He suggested that London didn’t need another 90,000 seat stadium and for this reason the new stadium will be constructed with a simple structure easy to be read for anybody and that it allow it to be disassembled once the event it’s over. In terms of location, the idea of an architect whose site was in a decentralized area was to extend a park, an important element for the small city, all the way to where the stadium was, that way not only he integrated it the stadium to the park idea, but also rehabilitated the area and invited the city to grow around the stadium.

The New
There were things that came out during these lectures which I didn’t take in consideration before, that I will do my best at dealing with, This are FIFA’s standards for stadiums holding these competitions, they have regulations regarding, mass transportation, fast exiting, good visibility, a well-designed VIP area and what came up a lot were a visitors area and media center which become key to these competitions since the stadium receives more visitors and press than ever before.

Comments
Just as a criticism I think most of the architects focused a lot in complementing FIFA’s standards for this competition which obviously had to be a priority, however some of the stadiums were not conceptualized at its maximum from my perspective; rather they focused more in ease of access, satisfying FIFA’s standards to stadia like giving the spectator the maximum amount of visibility and providing a regional design specific to the location which I think it’s ok , but I’m surprised that none of them is as eye catching as the recent Soccer city per say. Maybe it’s the impact of the architecture being more conscious about the environment which in a way gives up some of the ambition for achieving new things. But nonetheless there are truly beautiful designs that include that mall/ stadia approach very common nowadays while each does its best at revealing the natural properties of the site.