It is truly remarkable looking. But my favority aspect is that it has a grass field that rolls outside to grow and inside to be played on. If this field works and does not develop pot holes, etc., that athletes could get injured from, the athletes of the world ought to band together to vote Eisenmen the greatest stadium architect in history. What a wonderful, simple (conceptually anyway) idea! Don't develop synthetic turf. Move the grass outside to grow and inside to play on. Do you have to have seen 30 years of insanely bad rug burns and unnecessary knee injuries to appreciate the beauty of this idea?
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Certainly a very good idea, but not a new one. It has been applied frequently in Europe for soccer stadiums. I don't know which system they use in Phoenix, but in Europe there are basicly 2 systems. Either the grass pitch is lying on 2 or 4 concrete slabs, which are rolled out of the stadium. And then there is the system where the grass is lying on smaller slabs of concrete. These are taken out by a small crane and put on a trolley, which wheels them outside.
I agree with you on the last part for 100%. Who wants the fake if you can have a nice green and even grass pitch...
tilanus...
How long has this been being done in Europe? I suppose it has not been adopted in the USA for the lame excuse that grass doesn't grow outside during the winter in our continental climates. Dumb. Dumb. Dumb. Section the turf. Build a green house. Roll the grass in the green house and grow it. Make the green house big enought that the grass sections fit in a checker board. Use the green house and its checkerboard open spaces for everything from conventions, to farmer's markets, to art exhibits, to film festivals, to conventions and make money off the glass structure and the growing of grass. Hell, turn the green house into a commercial green house if nothing else, with a base revenue stream of the grass supplemented by the usual green house business. I'm so angry at these sports stadium persons and their businesses for foisting these crappy rugs off on athletes.
hehe
proud to be a belgian again; 2 of the biggest companies that are producing artificial grass are from belgium (we have a major textile industry overhere); domo and desso. what also exists is a mix of real gras and artificial; check it out!
http://www.artificialgrass.info/index_en.html
It has been done already for...
It has been done already for at least 10 years. I know that the first stadium in Holland that put it in, was opened in 1998. I will check if I can find some nice pictures. In this stadium in Arnhem (a small provincial town in the center of the country) they chose the option of wheeling out the complete pitch, which is on a concrete slab of appr. 105 x 70 meters and weighs appr. 11 milion kilo's. The whole thing slides with numerous teflon "feet" over 16 rails. The concrete slab, which is about half a meter deep, contains beside the grass a drainage-system, a heating-system and a full array of sensors which messure the temp. moist and all other conditions of the grass. The whole pitch slides underneath on of the stands in the stadium to it's outside resting place. Under this stand they created a system which allows them to support the whole stand from the outside, so that there is enough room underneath to roll the pitch out.
This stadium also has a closeble roof. So by sliding out the pitch you are left with a enormous concrete center-area. All in all ideal for concerts and events.
When I find some good pictures, I will post them.
I guess thet "Superball" sunday...
is the right time to discuss artificial turf and other grass-like contraptions. By U.S. standards the Arnhem soccerstadium might not be very exciting. One of the sapects of it that appeals to me is that the builders organized a collection of old garden furniture in order to gather enough plastic to mould the seats. From what I understand they even collected too much and donated seats to some other more "charitable" project. The rest is exactly how Tilanus described it. My favorite is (of course) Renzo Piano's stadium.
http://www.eurostadiums.com/pictures.php?st=234
And it doesn't look remotely like a bunker, either...
Piano is remarkable. This stadium, at least from the pictures, combines a fine blend of old and new. The look of the field and the lighting of it feels quite like some old American baseball stadiums that were in the 35,000 person size that I attended as a boy. I have always preferred the experience they offered over the modernist and post modernist stadiums that followed them. At the same time, colors and patterns are quite original inside and out and the outer structure, as I already said, avoids the bunker quality of so many stadiums, and yet exhibits total fluency and dexterity with modern form language.
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