Woods Bagot has unveiled its plan for the US$400 million new home stadium for Italian football team AS Roma, revealing a Colosseum like design.

Dan Meis, the Sport Design Leader of Australia’s largest international architecture firm, says that inspiration for the design came from the world’s most historic spectator venue, the Roman Collesseum, and will reflect Italian heritage and culture.

“For an architect who has spent much of his career designing stadiums, and most of his vacations in Italy, the Stadio della Roma truly is a project of a lifetime.

“Rome has an unparalleled architectural history. To be able to build anything there is a gift, to build a new home for AS Roma and the most passionate fans in football is heart stopping,” says Meis.

The design features a steel and concrete seating bowl that will house 52,500 fans. The bowl is wrapped in a ‘floating’ stone scrim, reminiscent of the facade of the famous Colosseum arena. The polycarbonate clad roof which covers 100% of the stadium seating also references the form of the historic retractable fabric canopy that once covered the upper tiers of the Colosseum.

“The design draws visual cues from the world’s most historic spectator venue, the Roman Colosseum,” says Dan Meis. Image: Woods Bagot

“The result is an extremely dynamic and contemporary form, firmly grounded in the rich history of Roman architecture,” said a statement from Woods Bagot.

For the diehard AS Roma supporters comes the newly designed ‘Curva Sud’—the section of the existing Stadio Olympico that is home to AS Roma’s ultra-supporters. The new stadium will have a steeply pitched, clearly delineated separate section of 14,800 seats, with a more ‘muscular’ and raw architecture to provide a clear and unquestionable identity as the heart of AS Roma fans.

Seats inside the stadium will be covered by a polycarbonate clad roof. Image: Woods Bagot

The over-all plan is also flexible and multi-use with retractable stage canopies, rigging, and turf protection systems designed to provide flexibility as a concert venue with an expansion capacity of 60,000 people.

Stadio della Roma will also be the first sustainable major sports venue in Europe that incorporates a carbon neutral footprint. This is benefited by the design’s maximum recycling capabilities and state-of-the-art renewable energy and conservation programs.

Another special feature of the pitch level is a massive hydraulic lift which will be the entrance for the players during warm-up. Woods Bagot says that this is modeled off the historical gladiatorial lifts from the Colosseum.

Sketches of the project, which is expected to cost more than $300 million. via FleishmanHillard

Nathan Johnson

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