Stadiums and arenas are where games—one of the sports industry’s core products—take place. In Japan, the construction and refurbishment of sports facilities, such as those for soccer and basketball, is ongoing nationwide, and there is also a substantial market outside Japan in this domain. What constitutes world-class facilities and equipment, and how can Japanese companies leverage their strengths? The author will discuss these questions based on the experience of Azusa Sekkei, a Japanese architectural design firm.
Global Trends in Stadiums and Arenas
Stadiums and arenas have a universal origin as venues for playing sports. Yet, globally, they have evolved into spaces not only for playing but also for watching and showcasing sports.
In Europe, built upon a long-standing football culture, various innovations have been introduced to entertain spectators. Stadiums have well-developed hospitality areas, including features such as skyboxes for private viewing, seats with attached restaurant lounges, and tunnel lounges that offer interactions with the players.
These complexes attract many visitors for the games and are enhanced by features such as museums displaying the club's history and shops selling merchandise.
In the United States, noticeable innovations have been made to accommodate multiple purposes in stadiums and arenas, including hosting various sports events and concerts. Movable seating, retractable pitches and roofs enable quick conversions, leading to an increased utilization rate of these venues.
Stadiums and arenas in the U.S. often function as entertainment complexes, offering a variety of spectator seating options and a “casual viewing” experience that allows fans simultaneously enjoy the game, dine, and socialize, further enriched by on-site casinos and hotels.
“Our Tampines Hub” in Singapore is a large-scale complex that encompasses a variety of sports facilities, including a stadium, swimming complex, and arena, as well as a library, government administrative offices, medical centers, and retail amenities. The stadium and arena serve as a focal point for addressing community health challenges such as obesity—a social concern in Singapore—along with other health issues, while also providing resources for community welfare and entertainment.
Consequently, these innovations in multifunctionality and complex integration have transformed stadiums and arenas around the world into entertainment facilities that people visit for both every day and extraordinary events. They maintain a close tie to the community while also being profitable.
What consists of uniquely-Japanese Stadium and Arena?
We at Sports & Entertainment Domain of Azusa Sekkei, which is responsible for the design of stadiums and arenas, have been visiting and researching the latest global examples for over a decade.
We have discussed what a uniquely-Japanese stadium or arena would entail, drawing on leading examples abroad. We have identified five essential concepts and three perspectives for future stadium and arena planning.
The five concepts are: 1. FOCUS (exploring the arena type), 2. UNIQUE (pursuing a distinctive design), 3. HOSPITALITY (creating a hospitality design), 4. FUTURE (designing for the future), and 5. COMMUNITY (pursuing design for the community). Based on these concepts we have considered what a uniquely-Japanese stadium or arena should have from the following three additional perspectives.
The first is "balancing the everyday with the extraordinary," meaning creating open facilities that serve as community spaces instead of traditional, closed-off ones. The second is “town development” centered around stadiums and arenas. We aim to create facilities that collaborate with the town, generate excitement, and draw people back time and again.
The third perspective is "solving community issues," aiming to create facilities that enhance local vitality and contribute to a sustainable society for the future, with a focus on the environment, communal contribution, and SDGs.
An example of our work that embodies these three perspectives is the Imabari Satoyama Stadium, located in Ehime prefecture in Japan.
Imabari Satoyama Stadium forms a hub for the town development. With the theme of "creating facilities that become a place of solace for everyone," the stadium boasts year-round attractions, featuring plazas enjoyable for both adults and children, promenades that encourage casual strolls and running, and collaboration with surrounding commercial and sports facilities.
Furthermore, the venue is planned as a stadium in progress, with intentional spaces reserved for expanding seating and enhancing functionality.
The design incorporates deliberate open areas to allow for flexible accommodation for various use and dramatically improves future expandability. This approach to facility creation that embraces diversity is a particularly important perspective for the future development of stadiums and arenas.
Entering the French Market with Japanese Perspective and Sensitivity
The perspectives in creating stadiums and arenas unique to Japan could also be effective internationally.
We have begun considering expanding our business outreach overseas. We thought that in regional cities especially, as in Japan, there is a need for expandable phased development which allows for low initial investment, or for using stadiums and arenas as everyday community hubs for interaction and regional revitalization. So, we targeted the less competitive French market as our entry point into the international sports facility market.
In France, architects often work at separate companies from engineers who are specialized in structural and facilities engineering. Unlike in Japan, the U.K., and the U.S., large-scale architectural design offices with thousands of employees are rare in France. Furthermore, public architecture projects often favor local firms to boost the economy.
However, for highly specialized large-scale constructions like stadiums and arenas, local companies alone cannot complete them.
As a step towards specific design work and entering the French market, we formed business alliances with GL events, a French event management, design, and construction company, and strategic alliances with INGEROP, a major French engineering company, steadily increasing the number of co-creation partners.
Collaboration with local design offices was essential, as we had no prior design experience in France. In 2019, we were informed of a rugby stadium reconstruction project in Agen, a city of about 30,000 people in southern France, and successfully reached out the influential local architectural design office, François de LA SERRE SARL.
It is a notable coincidence that France hosts both the Rugby World Cup and the Olympic Games four years after Japan.
François de LA SERRE SARL understood our technical capabilities demonstrated in the Japan National Stadium and our concept of community-integrated stadiums and arenas. Thanks to them, we formed a design joint venture to participate in the Agen project competition.
Our design proposal, which incorporated many of the perspectives we had considered for the future of stadiums in Japan, won the competition.
The "Stade Armandie" as a Social Venue for the City
The project required renovating the Stade Armandie, the home stadium of SUA LG, a team in the top French rugby league at the time. We approached the competition as a regeneration project rather than mere renovation.
In addition to the basic requirements of renovating the existing main stand, rebuilding the back stand, and adding a new roof to the west side stand, our specific stadium design proposal was rich in features such as everyday interaction as a hub, future expandability, comfortable hospitality, and a facade incorporating SUA LG’s team color to symbolize the stadium.
We also proposed enhanced hospitality by VIP suite with connected seating on the back stand’s second floor and VIP skyboxes on the third floor, suggesting their use as meeting rooms and party venues on non-game days, which was well received.
The Japanese concept of hospitality and everyday use aligned well with the French culture of viewing the stadium as a social venue.
Our proposal to establish a wide passageway on the ground level that serves as the concourse of the back stand and to be open for daily use was also well received. Restrooms, shops, and walls displaying photos of legendary players and the team's timeline were to set there. This made the stadium an open and bustling place everyone could freely enjoy even on non-game days.
Various innovations were also incorporated from the perspective of future expandability.
For the planning of general stands, we adopted GL events' steel-frame unit seating systems, which can flexibly accommodate future expansions and reductions. The east side stand was left as a flat standing area to allow for later enlargement. The venue was planned as a stadium in progress and the club team wishes to build a hotel-attached stand on the east side in the future.
Next to the stadium, we also planned a sports hub facility for local community interaction. The area around the stadium is a large sports park, with rugby and soccer practice fields, an athletics track, a swimming pool, and more. This hub facility has changing rooms for users of each practice field, a training gym and seminar rooms open to all, among other amenities, making it a place where anyone can gather at any time.
When I visited the site after the completion, I was deeply moved to hear, "Thanks to this facility, all the children who were considering moving out to other city's club teams stayed in Agen."
Enhancing hospitality with minimal renovations and expanding stadium functions, as proposed in this plan, minimizes environmental impact and offers significant economic benefits. The 10,000-seat stadium size is also common and has a presence in many markets so that we expect this plan to serve as a valuable reference for local stadium renovation planning domestically and internationally.
Globally Advocating Stadiums and Arenas as Core of Sustainable Urban Development and Regional Revitalization
The roles of stadiums and arenas are constantly changing.
We are committed to examining the leading examples from around the world while exploring the unique Japanese approach to stadiums and arenas. Our dedication extends to presenting the "NEXT Stadiums and Arenas" that resonate with the diverse cultures of countries globally and meet specific requirements, and further enhance our international outreach.
◇NAGAHIRO Masakuni
Born in Kumamoto Prefecture in 1960, he graduated from the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering and Design, Hosei University, and joined Azusa Sekkei Co., Ltd. in 1989. He currently serves as the company's Senior Executive Officer, Principal Architect, and Head of the Sports & Entertainment Domain.
Main works: FC Imabari Satoyama Stadium, Kanazawa Stadium, Kamaishi Stadium, K-Arena Yokohama, Yokohama Buntai, and many other stadium and arena designs, as well as TOTO Museum, Yamanashi City Government Office, Tsukuba Mirai City Youkodai Elementary School.
Significant awards: the BCS Prize, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Prize in JAAF Awards, the Good Design Award, the KUKAN DESIGN AWARD Sustainable Space of the Year, the Annual Architectural Design Commendation of the Architectural Institute of Japan, the Tokyo Association of Architectural Firms Tokyo Architecture Award Grand Prize, the JIA Environmental Architecture Award - Excellent Architecture Selection, the Public Building Association Public Architecture Award Excellence Prize, the Japan Architectural Arts and Crafts Association (AACA) Award Excellence Prize.
Note: This article was originally published in Japanese on Mar 17, 2023. The original article can be accessed here.
