IAKS All Time Award
for the Berlin Olympic Stadium
On 27 October the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) awarded an All Time Award for the Berlin Olympic Stadium at Koelnmesse’s Congress Centre North. The award was given in honor of both the operating company, Olympiastadion Berlin GmbH, and the designers of the extensive conversion (2000 to 2004), gmp – Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners, Berlin.
In preparation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the demanding task facing gmp – Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners was to carefully refurbish the building, which was listed as a historic monument, while also modernizing it into a multi-functional arena in accordance with modern requirements. The construction and design of the roof constituted a key element in the overall design. In order to be able to keep open the historic opening of the listed monument (with all its political implications) towards the adjoining Maifeld sports ground to the west, with its bell tower and Langemarckhalle (a National Socialist reference to the idea of a burial temple which, since 2006, has been used as a documentation center with a permanent exhibition entitled „Olympic Park – Historic Site“ and designed by gmp Architects), the designers decided against a closed ring construction. Instead, a steel tube space frame structure with a span of 68 meters and bearing on 20 very slender tree columns around the upper spectator ring covers all of the nearly 75,000 seats. With its delicate construction and choice of material – the skin of the roof is formed by a translucent membrane – the roof is in deliberate contrast to the solid structure of the historic building.
Since then, the architects have demonstrated their competence in the design of this type of building with numerous additional stadium projects such as those for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the UEFA 2012 European Championship (in Poland and Ukraine). In China they completed the Shanghai Oriental Sports Centre and the Universiade Sports Center amongst other projects, and construction on the SIP Sports Center in Suzhou has just started.
On 27 October the International Association for Sports and Leisure Facilities (IAKS) awarded an All Time Award for the Berlin Olympic Stadium at Koelnmesse’s Congress Centre North. The award was given in honor of both the operating company, Olympiastadion Berlin GmbH, and the designers of the extensive conversion (2000 to 2004), gmp – Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners, Berlin.
In preparation for the 2006 FIFA World Cup, the demanding task facing gmp – Architects von Gerkan, Marg and Partners was to carefully refurbish the building, which was listed as a historic monument, while also modernizing it into a multi-functional arena in accordance with modern requirements. The construction and design of the roof constituted a key element in the overall design. In order to be able to keep open the historic opening of the listed monument (with all its political implications) towards the adjoining Maifeld sports ground to the west, with its bell tower and Langemarckhalle (a National Socialist reference to the idea of a burial temple which, since 2006, has been used as a documentation center with a permanent exhibition entitled „Olympic Park – Historic Site“ and designed by gmp Architects), the designers decided against a closed ring construction. Instead, a steel tube space frame structure with a span of 68 meters and bearing on 20 very slender tree columns around the upper spectator ring covers all of the nearly 75,000 seats. With its delicate construction and choice of material – the skin of the roof is formed by a translucent membrane – the roof is in deliberate contrast to the solid structure of the historic building.
Since then, the architects have demonstrated their competence in the design of this type of building with numerous additional stadium projects such as those for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the 2014 World Cup in Brazil and the UEFA 2012 European Championship (in Poland and Ukraine). In China they completed the Shanghai Oriental Sports Centre and the Universiade Sports Center amongst other projects, and construction on the SIP Sports Center in Suzhou has just started.