Arena da Amazônia, Manaus, Brazil
Manaus, the capital of the federal state of the same name is located where the confluence of the Rio Negro and the Rio Solimões creates the Amazon. The city of millions in the middle of the jungle, 1,500 km from the sea is surrounded by rainforest. When designing the "Arena da Amazônia" the idea was to conceive a very simple but highly efficient stadium serving for the FIFA World Cup 2014. Designed for 45,000 spectators, the "Arena da Amazônia" was created to offer ideal conditions for professional and local sporting events. The project was developed by GMP architects together with a local partner office STADIA from São Paulo and with Schlaich Bergermann und Partner from Stuttgart as structural engineers. Transsolar was involved to evaluate the environmental conditions and to suggest options to improve thermal comfort of the spectators.
The environmental studies include:
- Analysis of local climatic conditions and solar irradiation for the period of the FIFA World Cup™ and development of design days for analysis of solar gains and outdoor comfort study in open stadium
- Definition of comfort targets according to FIFA recommendations and advanced international human comfort models (PT and WBGT)
- Hourly analysis of solar gain and overshadowing in stadium, visitor stands and pitch for the design days for different solar transmittances of the roof membrane
- Recommendations for passive strategies to improve the outdoor comfort in the stadium by shading and natural cross ventilation
The final roof construction consists of mutually bracing cantilever arms, whose hollow steel box girders also serve as large channels to absorb the enormous water masses of tropical precipitation. Given the hot and humid climate of the Amazon, the roof transitions into a façade that also shades the spectator walkways and vertical circulations. Roof and facade panels consist of translucent glass fiber fabric. The natural ventilation created in interaction with the facade openings promotes a pleasant microclimate.
