Wonder Architects - Wembley Stadium.

Located in the London Borough of Brent in London, England, the new wembley Stadium is owned by the Football Association (FA) via its subsidiary wembley National stadium Limited. Originally known as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium or Empire Stadium, it was one of the world’s most famous football stadiums, being England’s national stadium for football, and because of the geographical organs of the game, it was often referred to as “the Home of Football” and also used as venue for pop concerts and other sporting events. The old stadium was closed in 2000 and demolished in 2002. Construction of the new stadium began in October 2002, following its opening in 2007; it is often referred to as the stadium is also the most expensive stadium ever built. The new stadium was completed and handed over to the FA on 9 March 2007. at almost four times the height of the original covering the area, and with 90,000 seats, the new wembley stadium is the largest covered football stadium in the world. The key feature of the new stadium is its partly retractable roof, supported structurally by a spectacular 133-metre-high arch, dramatically illuminated at night the arch is visible from across London.

Architect & Contractor
Wembley was designed by architects HOK Sport and Foster + Partners with engineers Mott MacDonald, built by Multiplex and funded by Sport England, WNSL (Wembley National Stadium Limited), the Football Association, the Department for Culture Media Development Agency. It is the most expensive stadium ever built; the total cost of the project (including local transport infrastructure redevelopment and the cost of financing) estimated to be £1 billion (roughly US$1.97 billion).

Structural Design
The stadium is based around a bowl design with a capacity of 90,000, seats protected from the elements by a sliding roof. It can also be adapted as an athletic stadium by erecting a temporary platform over the lowest tier of seating. The stadium’s signature feature is a circular section lattice arch of 7 m internal diameter with a 315 m span, erected some 22º off true, and rising to 140 m tall. It supports all the weight of the north roof and 60% of the weight of the retractable roof on the southern side. The archway is the world longest unsupported roof structure. Facilities are designed to maximize spectator comfort and enjoyment of events: the stadium’s geometry with its curved seating tiers ensure that everyone has an unobstructed view; seats are wider than the previous stadium with more leg-room; the second and third tiers are easily accessed via escalators and a new concourse wrapping around the building allows easy circulation and provides catering for all including 10,000 seated diners at any one time. To create an intimate atmosphere during matches, the stadium has been designed with seats as close to the pitch as possible, however it also has the potential to host athletics track and field completions for which an elevated track and athletics arena can be installed above pitch and the first few rows of the lower tier, supported by a temporary rigid deck structure. At the same time, given particular attention to continue the thrilling “wembley roar” that energizes this spectacular venue. The design (50 year desing life) of the new stadium is both functional and architecturally significant. Sir Norman foster designed the arch and the roof structure, with the remainder of the stadium being designed by architects foster and Partners and HOK Sport. The stadium’s unique features include retractable roof panels and the arch. These were developed in response to the particular requirements of th stadium one of which was the need for a high-quality grass pitch in order to achieve UEFA 5 star stadium status, by using retractable roof panels, which retract to the south it allows as much daylight and ventilation to reach pitch level as possible the arch itself is not just a cosmetic feature; it supports the north roof and a sizeable area of the south roof.

Salient Features

•With 90,000 seats, the new Wembley is the largest stadium in the world in Europe next to the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona with a capacity of 98,000 but it is the largest stadia in the world with a covering roof. This capacity is separated into 3 tiers of seating, with lower tier holding 34, 303 spectators, the middle one
16,932and the upper one 39,165. the seating is much more steeply banked than previously so that no seat will have a restricted view.

•The roof structure covers 44.515m² are movable) and encloses 4 million m³ inside the walls and under the roof.

•The stadium roof rises 52m above the pitch and has a circumference of 1 km.

•At sits peak, there were more than 3,500 construction workers on site.

•The wembley arch has a diameter greater than that of a cross-channel train.

•The wembley arch has a diameter greater than that of a crocs-channel train.
•4,000 separate piles form the foundation of the new stadium,
The deepest of which is 35 m.

•90,000 m³ of concrete and 23,000 tonnes of steel were used in the construction of the new stadium. ;

•The total length of ht escalators is 400m.

•There are 56 km of heavy-duty power cables in the stadium.

•The stadium contains 2,618 toilets, more than any other venue in the world.


A truly architectural wonder isn't it?

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