Al Janoub Stadium, formerly known as Al Wakrah Stadium. Zaha Hadid designed the 2022 Fifa world cup Qatar 40,000-seat venue. Zaha Hadid Al Janoub Stadium hosted amir cup final between Al-Duhail and Al Sadd on May 16, 2019. That was played in front of an audience of 38,678 people.

Design

Al Janoub Stadium has an openable roof and a seating-bowl cooling system to allow football to be played all year round. Designed by Schlaich Bergermann partner and a cooling system powered by solar harvesting to guarantee that the stadium can be used during summer months. The operable roof has been designed in sympathy with the cladding using pleated fabric and cables. Passive design principles along with computer modeling and wind tunnel tests were used to maximize the effectiveness of the stadium enclosure to ensure player and spectator comfort.

In addition, the stadium has an integrated system that collects the pumped air-conditioned air and recycles it through cooling it again.

Stadium Concept

Sensing that their high-profile stadium could be a cultural inspiration for the Qataris. Hadid was keen to scour the surroundings for inspiration. The result was an eye-catching structure whose pleated shape recalls the hulls of dhows, the traditional boats of the region. “The dhow is an abstracted reference, but the shell-like enclosure of a hull is a direct analogy to the stadium roof being made up of a collection of shells,” says Jim Heverin, director at Zaha Hadid Architects. “Internally the structure is expressed in ribs like the structure of a boat’s hull, and externally, the cladding is pleated like a sail.”

The stadium, which has been designed to be the focal point of a large extension to the city, sits on a large landscaped podium. As all Zaha Hadid’s designs, this Stadium will always be a great architectural brilliance that represents the Bold Modern Architecture.