E-sports is becoming more and more popular and just like any other sport, it requires facilities and equipped spaces to cater for the tournaments, players, and their fans.
However, stadiums as a type generally take up a contemporary and single purposed spaces where approached by the public only when there is an event and require infrastructure that disturbs the city fabric and takes no consideration of the human scale and the cultural identity of the community.
This project aims to break that solid border between the city and the stadium and change that relationship into an interactive and adaptive one. This adaptive E-sports arena can be used during tournaments as an arena and as a communal grand space that can be used for market kiosks when there are no events. The diverse and futuristic approach of the spaces ensures there is something for everyone to enjoy at the adaptive e-sports arena.
Flexible stage area, Players lounge, Preparation room, maintenance rooms, storage rooms, food kiosks, retail shops, training space, restaurants, members lounge, offices, meeting room, conference room, press lounge, TV control room, first aid facilities, drone racing, VR entertainment, robot battle area.
The diverse program of the e-sports arena makes sure it takes into account users of all ages and backgrounds, thus, making it relevant to the community and memorable to the visitors. The arena does not ignore the surrounding elements as most stadiums do, on the contrary , it caters for the community needs and brings a landmark to the district to attract tourists and boost the economy of the country.
Prague, Czech Republic
2019
Architecture, Interior design, landscape
Scanning Praha 07
The aim of the project is to enhance the already existing urban development of the city by providing new urban guidelines, thus, allowing an organised and healthy development and future expansion of the city and to avoid random development and growth. The weak points of the city were highlighted and then tackled one by one so as to result in a compact city with smart growth strategies.
The proposed changes are designed to connect different parts of the city with each other through different strategies (such as pedestrian bridges, nature’s bridges, and connecting business districts) in order to make it pedestrian friendly and more accessible. the strategies also utilize environmental systems where there is added fish farming as well as the use of wetlands on the polluted brownfield to revitalize it. Furthermore, the flood treatment strategy is by using water basins, wetlands, and bioswales, thus creating new urban spaces out of a previously disadvantage aspect of the city.
Scanning Praha 07 to highlight problematic or weak parts of the district to produce new urban guidelines.
New Urban Guidelines
In response to highlighted areas in the masterplan of the district and categorizing main problems, new urban rules are established to improve the city’s development strategies and benefit from the common floods in Praha 07.
Stadium as a Type
One of the highlighted elements in the district is the stadium. Stadiums generally do not take the human scale into consideration and tend to demand heavy infrastructure that disturbs the neighborhood. On the other hand, this adaptive arena takes the human scale and its surroundings into consideration.
Form Finding Process
The e-sports arena’s site was chosen due to the fact that it was under-used by Praha 07. The arena was shaped according to environmental and urban factors that ensures its contribution to the growth of the city and integration with its surroundings.
A view of the arena in action, all visitors have the chance to fully experience the event.
Multipurpose E-sports Arena
The arena caters for activities that are usable and relevant all year round unlike most stadiums that are only approached when there is an event at the arena.
The ground floor contains workshop spaces, restaurants, VR experiences, players lounge, press and media rooms, conference room. The first floor contains members’ lounge, robot battle area, digital playground, and digital experience. Finally, the terrace level contains office spaces as well as areas for visitors to eat and enjoy the views on the vegetated terrace.
The arena provides people with workshop spaces where they can learn how to make robots and drones.