Swooding Architects Limited

Four separate grandstand sectors are divided along the stadium’s main axes and sheltered by lightweight textile membranes suspended from tall perimeter masts. Curved glazed volumes and public uses at ground level open the stadium toward the park and surrounding streets. In the survey area, an urban network links the athletics stadium and halls embedded in green terrain with an elongated pedestrian corridor extending toward Borongaj. For the second round, the jury established additional evaluation criteria. These included the urban concept, the quality and feasibility of the proposal, the integration of buildings and public spaces, and the organisational and formal qualities of the individual buildings, with particular emphasis on the stadium proposal. Generic or overly expressive structures that strongly defined the stadium’s identity but presented significant challenges in terms of construction or cost were considered less appropriate to the programme and context. The same applied to high-maintenance materials and an excessive reliance on vegetation within the stadium. The possibility of phased construction was also an important criterion for elimination, while the jury continued to recognise the architectural quality of the programme’s articulation.