Artemio Franchi Stadium

A  sporting stadium and park re-united

An international competition was held for the redevelopment of The Artemio Franchi Stadium -originally designed by Pier Luigi Nervi. Our team which included John McAslan and Stefano Boeri was shortlisted for the final competition stage. The redevelopment of Artemio Franchi Stadium celebrates Pier Luigi Nervi’s design philosophy. The project founds its inspiration in the wider cultural and natural landscape of the Florence region. The landscape of the ground plane unifies a diversity for communal and sporting facilities and visually extends onto the various stadium roofs blending architecture and nature into a panoramic skyline. The landscape approach is based on three main ideas. The first is the park forming an ecological blue green infrastructure acting as an urban sponge in between the Tuscan hill and River Arno. The second is the park as community heart of the surrounding urban district. The third is a public park designed to integrate the separate sport and communal facilities into an overall composite in which the stadium and surrounding plaza becomes like a belvedere overlooking the bucolic park beyond. The formal layering of the park is composed by extending the orthogonal and diagonal street pattern into the park, sightlines orientated to the stadium tower as well the proportions of the stadium grandstand columns. A sunken linear water basin unites the main stadium with the park and is part of the water management of the site. A multi-purpose oval track for walking, jogging, roller skating and cycling encapsulates the entire park and creates a charm bracelet of community activities.