Tangram Gulf recently unveiled a naturally-cooled FIFA stadium design for the 2022 World Cup in Doha, Qatar. Speaking at Construction Week Qatar, general manager Nigel Eckersall emphasized the importance of allowing sustainability to guide construction principles over the next nine years.
And Tangram is leading the way with a design that incorporates ancient Islamic climate controls and biomimicry to keep 80,000 people cool during what will be the Middle East’s first World Cup event.
“We are in a pivotal time now in Qatar as we have nine years left to deliver our construction plans,” Eckersall said at the recent event.
“We must be clever and intelligent to provide sustainable buildings for the next generation and think about the legacy we are going to leave for 2022 and beyond.”
Wrapped in a punctured skin that permits constant air flow, Tangram’s stadium relies on several passive cooling mechanisms that don’t require a watt of conventional energy.
Traditional baghdeer openings combined with Fibonacci logarithms and a cooling technique modeled after desert lizards (which fan themselves using their scales) pushes hot air out of the stadium while keeping cool air inside.
Additionally, using the Venturi effect, the designers propose to hasten air pressure across the colonnades to further promote cooling. These also provide thermal massing.
Lastly, a system of qanats, such as those used by the ancient Persians to transport water from the mountains to dry valleys below, are used to create a shallow pool of water below the stadium in order to provide evaporative cooling.
In this way, Tangram believes they will be able to keep interior temperatures below the so-called Wet Bulb Temperature (WBT) of 26-29C mandated by FIFA.
However, it remains to be seen whether the event will be staged during summer as critics warn that the high heat and humidity could imperil the health of both athletes and spectators.
Michel D’Hooghe, FIFA’s medical chief, has publicly announced his preference for a safer winter World Cup that year.
Meanwhile, with construction and talks about unfair labor laws well underway, Qatar is on track to spend approximately $115 billion to prepare for the event.
:: Inhabitat
Author: Tafline Laylin
As a tour leader who led “eco-friendly” camping trips throughout North America, Tafline soon realized that she was instead leaving behind a trail of gas fumes, plastic bottles and Pringles. In fact, wherever she traveled – whether it was Viet Nam or South Africa or England – it became clear how inefficiently the mandate to re-think our consumer culture is reaching the general public. Born in Iran, raised in South Africa and the United States, she currently splits her time between Africa and the Middle East. Tafline can be reached at tafline (at) greenprophet (dot) com.
This is real interesting.
I am always against Qatar’s holding of the World Cup 2022 and changing to winter. However, I really hope this new technology can really work. This is because that it will be a huge achievement in engineering and technology.