Doha, Qatar — A Qatari/Australian led consortium’s design for a FIFA/Olympic-standard stadium with a sunken arena has won an international architecture competition to create a national stadium and sports village in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

Doha-based Australian firm, Designsport, and Australian LAVA (Laboratory for Visionary Architecture), in collaboration with local Ethiopian architects, JDAW, won the competition for their design which references Ethiopia’s world-famous excavated architecture and the ‘Mother womb’, the skeleton of one of the first humans, Lucy, who is about 3.2 million years old.

The stadium is shaped like a coffee bean, the main source of income in Ethiopia. The façade material that wraps around the stadium was similarly inspired by Ethiopian culture, modelled on the Massob, an Ethiopian communal serving basket made from woven grass. Completing the salute to nature, the roof of the stadium, which is an intelligent membrane, appears like a cloud on the horizon of the vast Ethiopian sky.

Work on the Addis Ababa stadium is scheduled to begin in 2014. The development is the largest sporting infrastructure project in Ethiopia, the second-most populous country in Sub-Saharan Africa and its fastest growing economy. The new facility, set on a 60-hectare site, will consist of a 60,000-seat stadium, an athletics track, aquatic centre, residential village, sports halls and arenas, retail and commercial zones as well as the headquarters of the Federal Sport Commission.

Samantha Cotterell, CEO of Designsport, a consultancy specialising in sport architecture and event design, who led the bid says: “The brief was to design a centre that would revitalise sport in Ethiopia. The result is a sports venue which can be used by all. It is for community use at a grass roots level right through to providing a high performance training centre for elite athletes and a location for major international sporting events.”

Chris Bosse, who led the design team, and is a director of LAVA, an award winning international firm of architects says: “We have gone back to the very origin of stadium design with the sunken arena surrounded by grandstands formed from excavated material. The man-made crater is a clever remodelling of the existing terrain, integrating facilities within the landscape. It is an efficient use of space which optimises the site’s environmental performance while minimising construction costs.”

Cotterell has worked as a senior overlay design consultant on all of Qatar’s major sporting events including heading up overlay design for sporting venues for the Doha 2006 Asian Games Organising Committee

Designsport and LAVA designed the Doha tennis lounge and the Sodra Future Tennis Centre. They were also were finalists in the international architectural design competition for the Health and Wellness Centre at Qatar Foundation, Doha, Qatar. The project included a major sport centre, a FIFA stadium for Qatar 2022 World Cup and was designed to be integrated into the Qatar Foundation Complex – Qatar’s leading University complex.

Image Courtesy of   Clive Chilvers / Shutterstock.com

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The Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation (AMAF) in Dubai has announced a plan to convert a mosque to the first eco-friendly mosque in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). According to the Khaleej Times newspaper, the project will cost 25 million UAE dirhams or 6.81 million USD.

The eco-friendly mosque is expected to save about 20 percent of water and power consumption. The normal consumption of water in the mosques is about three liters per person a day while the normal consumption of electricity in the mosques is about  250 kilo watts per square meter a year. Adding to eco-friendly conversion, the mosque would extend to about 9,754.82 square meters (105,000 square feet), making it the largest mosque in Dubai.

After the modifications, the mosque would accommodate about 3,500 worshipers at the same time. The roof of the mosque would be gardened to reduce the sun heat; additionally, it will use the solar energy to heat ablution water. The ablution is an Islamic procedure for washing parts of the body by using water to be prepared for prayer. The recycling plant within the mosque facilities will take the used ablution water for gardening and washroom use. The mosque will be constructed by eco-friendly materials to avoid non-biodegradable waste. It will also use an automatic thermostat to keep cool without wasting energy and will use natural light.

According to the Khaleej Times, Mr. Tayeb Abdulrahman Al Rais, Secretary-General of the AMAF, said: “The construction of the mosque is in line with the UAE leadership’s vision towards the conservation of resources, environment protection, and the adoption of green practices. With the global call for energy conservation, it is essential for developers to take responsibility for creating buildings that comply with green standards. The mosque project complies with best practices in corporate governance, while being transparent and gaining the validation of Awqaf, government and private institutions.”

In the neighboring city, Abu Dhabi’s General Authority of Islamic Affairs & Endowments department approved the plan of an eco-friendly mosque to be built within Saadiyat Island. The design was made by Suhail Mohammed Suleiman, a graduate architecture student at Al-Hosn University. This initiative is not the first in the mosque-building field. In 2008, the Islamic community in Manchester opened Masjid-E-Noor, which was the first partially eco-friendly mosque in the world. The mosque was built with wood from renewable sources.  It also possessed solar panels to generate electricity.

In 2010, the Muslim community in Cambridge opened the first fully operated eco-friendly mosque. The mosque was designed by the award-winning architecture company, Marks Barfield, who designed a lot of projects in the UK and in the world, such as London Eye and Kew Treetop Walk.

Additionally, in 2010, eco-friendly mosques were opened in Buyukeceli village, which is in the Mersin province of Turkey. The mosques were opened by the residents of the village to protest having a nuclear plant there. This action was taken to show the government that there are many renewable sources that generate clean energy and are preferable to a nuclear plant.

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Singapore, Republic of Singapore — The development of sustainable urban infrastructure is one of the greatest challenges of the 21st century. With more than half of the global population already squeezed into cities that, collectively, make up less than two percent of the planet’s land cover(1), the pressure now being placed on urban infrastructure is unprecedented. This worldwide demand for infrastructure is expected to require the investment of tens of trillions of dollars over the next four decades in order to create and maintain sustainable and highly-liveable urban areas that balance the needs of the population, the economy and the environment.

To that end, KPMG’s Global Infrastructure Practice is pleased to announce the much-anticipated second edition of the Infrastructure 100: World Cities Edition – a high-profile report showcasing 100 of the most innovative and inspiring urban infrastructure projects from around the world. Released at the World Cities Summit in Singapore, this edition provides insight into the infrastructure projects that make great cities, with a particular focus on the innovations that make them ‘Cities of the Future’ – places where people want to live and do business.

“Existing urban infrastructure is in urgent need of revitalization, and demands for new infrastructure have skyrocketed to meet the basic needs of growing populations. The world’s cities are already home to more than half the world’s population, and that number is expected to jump by more than three billion by 2050,” said Nick Chism, KPMG’s Global Head of Infrastructure. “The World Cities Edition looks specifically at the challenges faced by cities around the world and features 100 innovative projects that can inspire readers to conceive, finance and develop infrastructure projects that make a positive difference to the cities we live in.”

From managing exploding urban population growth to updating aging infrastructure or effectively managing a declining population and tax base, each region of the world faces major infrastructure challenges that must be met in order to ensure the economic health of the region.

“Cities are playing an ever more important part in their country’s economy. However, current global economic conditions and austerity measures have resulted in a need to identify innovative infrastructure solutions to deliver the required investments,” said James Stewart, KPMG’s Chairman of Global Infrastructure. “Strategic city infrastructure projects are delivering economic renewal by connecting communities and increasing jobs while delivering tangible long-term impacts and growth. But the importance of investing in sound, smart infrastructure cannot be overstated.”

Image Courtesy of  Neale Cousland / Shutterstock.com

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When we recently visited the beautiful passages of Paris, I was awestruck. I had heard of these places in stories, full of wonder and carnival-esque mystique. Somehow it had never quite occurred to me that these niches of dreams existed in reality, gems of history laden with memories. Built in the early 1800’s, these passageways were technological wonders, offering unheard of amenities to the emerging class of bourgeois consumers. Gas lighting and heated shelter protected from rain and mud, while creating a beautiful setting for copious goods, services, cafes and restaurants where one could rest and observe fellow lingerers. These cathedrals of commerce and leisure were a luxurious option over the shopping experience of hunting and gathering all around town.

Unfortunately they became somewhat distinct after the introduction of department stores, falling out of fashion permanently and becoming home to vagrants and gamblers. Today, only 20 or so remain out of the 150 original arcades, most of which have rebuilt repeatedly. Those precious few that remain still showcase the artistic wonder that kept Paris alive, filled with ancient book shops, art galleries, and cafes. The light twinkles through the glass roofs, and sunlight slices clouds of dust like mist over a waterfall, recalling stories past. It only takes one to shut their eyes and the soft hum of music boxes and the ring of children’s joy comes flooding back.

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