The famous Santiago Bernabeu stadium, home of Real Madrid football club, will be closed for renovations at the end of this season; work will be completed in 2017. The gmp bureau, together with the Spanish workshops L35 Arquitectos and Ribas & Ribas Arquitectos, won an international competition, where their rivals were Foster + Partners with Rafael de La-Hoz Arquitectos, Herzog & de Meuron with the Bureau of Rafael Moneo and Populous with Estudio Lamela.
The Santiago Bernabeu was built in the 1940s and has been renovated several times since then, but the current renovation will change its appearance most significantly. Outside, it will receive a new metal shell: between it and the arena, on one side, there will be a shopping and entertainment center with a hotel. It also provides for the renovation of the museum, new cafes, underground parking. The stands will remain largely unchanged, although the review still promises to be improved. Above them, retractable translucent ceilings will be arranged, which will allow the stadium to be used for any event in any weather.
Outside, the shell will be illuminated by multi-colored LEDs, and on the east side, a huge screen will be reinforced, where in case of especially important events they will broadcast what is happening in the arena. The project budget will be 400 million euros.
While gmp is famous for its stadiums, Richard Rogers only designed the first such facility in his career. Its Venezuelan National Football Stadium will be located on a hillside in the new Hugo Chávez Park in Caracas. The most visible component of the project will be the multi-colored roof in the shape of a bicycle wheel. The location of the building on a slope will allow you to surround it with terraces and esplanades, from which you can immediately get to any level of the building.
Rogers' office also developed a master plan for the entire La Rinconada area, where the park is located. In addition to the aforementioned football stadium for 50 thousand spectators, the architects will design a baseball arena for 45 thousand spectators there.
