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Iconic sport venue is a challenge by itself, based on your experience in this area how a sport event vs. iconic sport venue can benefit each other?
Hosting a major sport event can be the catalyst to building significant sport and iconic sport infrastructure. The iconic nature of a structure enhances the branding of the host city/country and the event, enhances the atmosphere of the event. The iconic structure will be the historical representation of the time and place of the hosted event but it does not necessarily affect the operational efficiency or the success of an event. Major events and associated iconic architecture are about branding a city and/or country not specifically about the sport or the event.
Do you agree on this statement “All international sports venues are iconic or hosting iconic events” and why do agree or disagree?
All major sport venues have an iconic representation by shear virtue of their size – I question the architectural value of some of the iconic structures and their success as sport venues and/or as buildings.
How do you feel when you see an iconic sports structure while you are traveling or driving or walking around especially when you were involved in?
The creative process and the implementation time required to complete a Stadium or a Sport Event is such that large portions of one’s life are taken up by that single project. Seeing the result of one’s work is therefore quite emotional and a city transformed by and for a major sport event or a major sport structure is very thrilling.
What is interesting and thrilling about Sport Event architecture is that traditionally an architect hands over the keys to the building to the client once the project is completed, while in a sport event the architect is often involved in the actual event and then in the reinstatement of the building post event. All this adds another dimension to the role of the architect.