Architecture practice Bear Stadiums and Italian timber manufacturer Rubner Holzbau have joined forces to produce wooden sports venues that can be built quickly and cost-efficiently. The two companies claim their modular, mid-capacity “stadiums of the future” can be assembled in just six to eight months and are totally green. The project was conceived for Italy’s smaller sports clubs beginning to move up the ladder of the professional game. The proposed

The Rolling Stones have officially opened one of the largest indoor stadiums in Europe, Paris’s U Arena. Mick Jagger, Keith Richards and co ended their latest world tour with three sold-out shows at the stadium, built in the heart of the French capital’s La Défense district, close to the landmark Grande Arche. Designed by Pritzker-winning architect Christian de Portzamparc, the arena forms a distinctive horseshoe shape – the ‘U’ of

English football club Fulham FC has revealed fresh details of how it plans to create a new “leisure destination for use on match and non-match days” at the club's Craven Cottage stadium. Global sports architects Populous have created a proposal for the club that its chair, Shahid Khan, claims will “transcend the customary standards of football grandstands” by “blending history and the contemporary like no stadium in the land or

Canadian architects Lemay and US studio CannonDesign have created a striking, transformable arena in the city of Laval, Quebec, billed as “the most popular new sports destination in the region.” Place Bell is the new home of hockey team Laval Rocket – an American Hockey League (AHL) franchise – and features a 10,000-seat arena. It also boasts a 2,500-seat Olympic speed and figure-skating arena and a regular, 500-seat skating rink,

Funding has been approved for a 27,500-seater stadium designed to bring Major League Soccer (MLS) to Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville’s Sports Authority has approved a $225m (£171m, €191) bond resolution, solidifying funding before the proposal goes to the Metro Council for final approval in November. Concept designs from global architecture firm HOK show the stadium covering 500,000sq ft (152,400sq m) at The Fairgrounds site in the capital of Tennessee. The renderings

3XN Architects have released new visuals showing the forthcoming home of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Lausanne, Switzerland. The studio won the competition to design the 25,000sq m (270,000sq ft) project, called Olympic House, in 2014, and construction began last year on the shores of Lake Geneva. The new headquarters will bring together 600 employees currently working in disparate offices throughout the city. There will be public facilities on

The city council of Derby, UK, has unveiled ambitious plans for a new swimming and leisure facility designed by international design practice FaulknerBrowns Architects and overseen by project managers Mace. The proposals include a ten-lane, 50m swimming pool; a leisure water area for families; a learner pool; a gym; fitness studios; a sauna; steam rooms; a café and a soft play area. The adaptable main pool will contain two booms

Fulham FC have appointed global sports architects Populous to lead the redesign of the Riverside Stand at the club’s London home, Craven Cottage. In his programme notes for the Championship match against Hull City on 13 September, Fulham FC chairman Shahid Khan pledged that the project will “transcend the customary standards of football grandstands” by including riverside pubs and restaurants, event facilities, green spaces and public access to a river

Scottish football club Celtic has been granted planning permission in principle for a hotel and museum complex to be built adjacent to the 47-time Scottish Premier League (SPL) champions’ home ground in Glasgow. First revealed in February, the £18m (US$24m, €20m) plans, which were submitted to Glasgow City Council for approval, also include a new ticket office and retail store, with the development to come up outside the main stand

Sports and leisure architects Populous have announced the opening of a new office in Tokyo as the firm continues its global expansion. The decision to establish an office in Japan expands Populous’ global footprint to 15 branches worldwide, including six in the Asia-Pacific region. The organisation now has more than 500 employees around the globe. “Japan offers a wealth of opportunity with its strong culture, burgeoning sports scene and as

Games developer and broadcasting giant Blizzard Entertainment has transformed a legendary Los Angeles television studio into a major eSports arena. The popularity of eSports competitions – in which opposing players compete at video games played online, often with thousands of digital spectators following the action – has grown at a huge rate in the last decade. The Blizzard Arena has been conceived to take advantage of this growing popularity. Located

The University of Birmingham has officially opened an indoor sports centre, designed by British architecture studio Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, with the ambition “to provide future generations of the city’s athletes with world-class sports facilities.” The centre, which is open to students, academics and the public, includes the city’s first Olympic-standard swimming pool and a range of sports halls and gyms, laboratories, testing facilities and a large climbing wall. The building

Real Madrid football club has announced plans to create an interactive football experience centre as part of a major development in Zhuhai, China. Business conglomerate the Lai Sun Group is behind the development – an integrated tourism and entertainment project called Novotown – which will, in its second phase, feature the world-first Real Madrid experience. Utilising advanced technologies, entertainment elements and football, visitors will be able to experience a number

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has officially approved plans to transform Paris into an Olympic Park for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games – a decision which will see sporting events take place against the spectacular backdrop of the city’s historic buildings, streets and landmarks. The Champs Elysees and the River Seine are among the 38 Olympic and Paralympic venues spread across the French capital, while beach volleyball will be

The striking new home for Spanish football side Atletico Madrid is ready to host its first match, with construction finally completed on the 68,000 capacity Wanda Metropolitano stadium. The club has invested a reported €300m on the new ground – which replaces the Vicente Calderon Stadium, its home of over 50 years – in order to propel them to the sport’s elite level. Spanish architecture practice Cruz y Ortiz were

A major adventure resort offering a wide variety of physical, thrilling and wellness activities, a 100-bedroom hotel and 400 luxury lodges on a 480-acre (194-hectare) Welsh site will be project managed by AECOM. Afan Valley Adventure Resort will offer a mix of healthy and exhilarating pastimes, including water sports, mountain biking, survival training, trampolining, surfing and zorbing, in response to rising demand for British holidays with a stronger emphasis on

Almost 2,000 people have attended a private opening event for the Little Ceasers Arena; a 20,000-capacity sports and entertainment venue located in the heart of Detroit. Politicians, athletes, media personalities and business and civic leaders attended the event on Tuesday (5 September) to take a first look at the hotly-anticipated venue – the new home of National Hockey League (NHL) franchise the Detroit Red Wings and National Basketball Association (NBA)

Atlanta’s new two million square foot stadium has hosted its first game – a preseason National Football League tie between the Atlanta Falcons and the Arizona Cardinals. Tens of thousands of supporters attended the match to take a first look at the hotly-anticipated US$1.5bn (€1.24bn, £1.16bn) sports and entertainment facility, named the Mercedes-Benz Stadium after its principal sponsor. Designed by the Sports + Recreation + Entertainment arm of architecture firm

British architecture practice FaulknerBrowns have been selected to design a £50m (US$64m, €54.3m) indoor sports centre for the University of Portsmouth. The building, to be situated on the University's campus in Ravelin Park, will feature an eight-lane swimming pool, a fitness suite, a sports hall, a climbing wall and squash courts, in addition to spaces for exhibitions and social and community events. While further design details have not been revealed

Details of the latest proposed stadium for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar have been officially revealed, with a design inspired by the traditional Arab ‘gahfiya’ headdress. The Al Thumama Stadium – conceived by Qatari architect Ibrahim M. Jaidah from Arab Engineering Bureau, Qatar’s oldest design firm – will seat 40,000 fans in 2022, with the capacity reduced to 20,000 in ‘legacy mode’ after the tournament. The gahfiya, as

Thailand-based architecture and engineering practice Chiangmai Life Construction (CLC) have developed a net zero sports hall made entirely from bamboo, earth and stone. Panyaden International School in the city of Chiang Mai required a larger assembly space and an indoor sports facility protecting students from the elements in both the wet and dry seasons. CLC had previously designed the school’s other buildings, using rammed earth building methods and layered bamboo

Spanish architect Alberto Campo Baeza has completed a semi-transparent sports hall for a university in Madrid. Designed for the campus of the Francisco de Vitoria University in the Pozuelo municipality, the white steel and concrete facility is formed of two well-defined boxes, connected by a low-rise building whose roof becomes an inter-connecting patio. Sports halls, multi-purpose event spaces, a gymnasium, a swimming pool and physiotherapy rooms all feature, with the

Italian Serie A football team Atalanta has purchased its home stadium from the local authority and revealed its intention of redeveloping the antiquated venue. A contract between the football club and the Municipality of Bergamo has been agreed for the for the sum of €8.6m (£7.8m, US$10.1m), plus a further €2.3m (£2.1m, US$2.7m) or improvement works that were carried out in 2015. Further work will be done in the shape

Thunderous sound effects, dramatic strobe lighting and enormous and exuberant video projections are welcoming players to the field at the new stadium of Russian football club FC Krasnodar, which has installed a 4,700sq m media screen along the top tier of the bowl. International architects Gerkan, Marg & Partners (gmp) and Russian design firm Maxim Rymar Architectural Studio designed the 33,979 capacity ground, which is raised on a plinth slightly

An exclusive hotel anchoring a new sports and leisure district in Green Bay, Wisconsin, opened on Wednesday (19 July). Lodge Kohler is one component of Titletown, the 34 acre district being developed by US National Football League (NFL) franchise the Green Bay Packers. Designed by developer Kohler Co’s in-house design team, the hotel has 134 bedrooms, 10 suites and views of the Packers' 81,400-capacity Lambeau Field. It is also the

US architecture firm Gensler has designed a stadium for Major League Soccer (MLS) hopeful North Carolina Football Club – one of a number of football-specific projects the studio is working on. The football club has earmarked downtown Raleigh as the location for the stadium. The development will include a conference space, office, hospitality and retail space, housing and public parking. “This is an important step in our pursuit of a

The Prosper Independent School District (IDS) just north of Dallas has unveiled plans for a US$48m (€41.5m, £37m) 12,000 capacity stadium and attached natatorium, set to open in 2019. According to the project's architect, Huckabee, the stadium will feature split level seating for the home-side; a two-storey press box; press, scouting and community rooms; and restaurant facilities. The turf is suitable for both competitive American football and soccer, with paved