The Akron Stadium is a unique collaboration where we were hired as architectural and engineering specialists to join the team developing the ideas of the artistic directors Jean Marie Massaud and Daniel Pouzet.

We understood the stadium as another hill as part of the Bosque de la Primavera, a mountain that in the words of Pouzet evoked Mount Fuji and its halo-like cloud. The purity of this image was integrated into every design decision as something positivist. The removal of all vertical barriers, fences, and walls gave an unprecedented spatial flow for this kind of architectural typology.

The brief called for a single entrance, bringing fans together socially and giving a more friendly feel for those arriving. The entire program is distributed along a continuous circuit of retail units, with the focus always being on the pitch, goal celebrations, and above all the emotions of football.

By complying with FIFA recommendations, the stadium qualifies as one of the venues for official international fixtures and it therefore could be used for the World Cup matches in 2016.