moses mabhida stadium – south africa world cup 2010

29,424 articles

SHARE AND PROMOTE YOUR WORK

since 1999, home of design culture, designboom has been the world's
first online magazine. we welcome readers to submit projects. START UPLOADING

Jun 01, 2010

first image
moses mabhida stadium south africa by gmp architekten
photo © marcus bredt

german firm gmp architekten have sent in images of the durban stadium they designed
for the 2010 FIFA world cup in south africa. located on the country's east coast it has been
built on the site of the existing king's park stadium and is named after moses mabhida, a former
general secretary of the SACP (south african communist party).

photo © marcus bredt

situated on a raised platform, the multifunctional stadium is accessed from the south
via a broad flight of steps. a 104m (two-pronged) arch curves high over the stadium as
an emblem, visible far and wide. the main entrance at the end of a 2.5km linear park coincides
with the bifurcation of the arch, as a gateway to the city.

aerial view
photo © marcus bredt

a cable car at the northern end leads to the skywalk at the apex of the arch. from here,
visitors can enjoy a spectacular view over the city and the indian ocean. as a distinctive feature,
the arch, gives the stadium its unique silhouette, while as a landmark it forms an imposing part
of the skyline of durban.

moses mabhida stadium
photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

the entrance to the stadium
photo © marcus bredt

the geometry of the roof is predetermined by the architectural concept. between the strong
compression ring of the stadium bowl and the arch, a series of radial cables are clamped on
the inner edge of the roof so as to make the tension ring almond-shaped. the ptfe-coated
membrane of the roof allows 50% of the light through the surface while providing protection
against glare and rain. the façade of open lamellae, which follows the undulations in the volume
of the stadium, screens the encircling walkway from the sun and the frequent bouts of wind
while permitting a free view outwards. the outer skin is in effect a geometrical overlay of a cone
imposed on a cylinder, making a walk round the circuit of the stadium a interesting event,
with the angle of the rising facades changing as you progress.

the arch which connects the roof and consists of a cable car
photo © marcus bredt

entrance into the stadium
photo © marcus bredt

the cable car at the apex of the arch
photo © marcus bredt

inside the stadium
photo © marcus bredt

the maximum capacity of the stadium for the 2010 world cup has been set at 70,000
spectators distributed over three tiers. after the world cup, the number of seats will be
reduced to 56,000, but can be temporarily increased to up to 85,000 for major events.

photo © marcus bredt

inside the stadium
photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

the roof's arch
photo © marcus bredt

the 350m long free-span steel arch weighs 2600 tons - that’s the equivalent of 2,600 average cars.
the roof is attached to the arch by 95mm-diameter steel cables.

construction workers on the roof
photo © marcus bredt

the roof cover provides shelter to 80% of the stadium in the case of rain.

the stadium seats
photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

the stadium's exterior
photo © marcus bredt

the new stadium with its surrounding green areas for sports, leisure and cultural activities
and social uses will develop into the focus of an attractive urban area and establish itself
as a high-quality venue for sports events in south africa.

photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

concrete support beams
photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

one of the lounges inside the stadium
photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

interior of the stadium
photo © marcus bredt

photo © marcus bredt

players showers
photo © marcus bredt

players baths
photo © marcus bredt

view at night
photo © marcus bredt

view of moses mabhida stadium at night
photo © marcus bredt

view of moses mabhida stadium at night
photo © marcus bredt

the roof is made of 46,000m2 of teflon®-coated glass fibre membranes, which will produce
a translucent glow when the stadium is lit.

view of moses mabhida stadium at night
photo © marcus bredt

view of moses mabhida stadium at night
photo © marcus bredt

the stadium at night
photo © marcus bredt

view of moses mabhida stadium at night
photo © marcus bredt

view of the durban coast and moses mabhida stadium
photo © marcus bredt

view of the durban coast and moses mabhida stadium
photo © marcus bredt

section view
image courtesy gmp architekten

floor plan
image courtesy gmp architekten

floor plan
image courtesy gmp architekten

floor plan
image courtesy gmp architekten

floor plan
image courtesy gmp architekten

floor plan
image courtesy gmp architekten

roof drawing
image courtesy gmp architekten

site plan
image courtesy gmp architekten

project info:
competition: 2006 - 1st prize
design: volkwin marg and hubert nienhoff with holger betz
project leaders: holger betz, elisabeth menne, burkhard pick
team: chris hättasch, alberto franco flores, susan türke, stephan menke, andrea jobski,
barbara düring, christian blank, helge letius, martin krebes, nadine sawade, kristian uthe-spenker,
rüdiger von helmolt, andrea jobski, uschi köper, florian schwarthoff
structural engineers: schlaich bergermann and partner
in co-operation with ibhola lethu consortium
theunissen jankowitz architects
ambro afrique architects
osmond lange architects
nsm designs
mthulusi msimang architects, SA
consortium with ibhola lethu pm jv
general contractor: group five, wbho, pandev jv
client: municipality of durban (ethekwini municipality), stategic projects unit
seats: 70.000
construction: period 2006-2009

ridhika db

06.01.10

name (required)

e-mail (will not be published) (required)

comments policy

tips:
- to start a new line press enter
- to create a link type www

designboom's comment policy guidelines
generally speaking, if we publish something, it's because we're genuinely interested in the subject.
we hope you'll share this interest and if you know even more about it, please share!
our goal in the discussion threads is to have good conversation and we prefer constructive opinions.
we and our readers have fun with entertaining ones
. designboom welcomes alerts about typos, incorrect names, and the like.
the correction is at the discretion of the post editor and may not happen immediately.

what if you disagree with what we or another commenter has to say?
let's hear it! but please understand that offensive, inappropriate, or just plain annoying comments may be deleted or shortened.

- please do not make racist, sexist, anti-semitic, homophobic or otherwise offensive comments.
- please don't personally insult the writers or your fellow commenters.
- please avoid using offensive words, replacing a few letters with asterisks is not a valid workaround.
- please don't include your website or e-mail address in your comments for the purpose of self-promotion.
- please respect jury verdicts and do not discuss offensively on the competition results
(there is only one fist prize, and designboom usually asks renown professionals to help us to promote talent.
in addition to the awarded designs, we do feel that almost all deserve our attention, that is why we publish
the best 100-200 entries too.)

a link is allowed in comments as long as they add value in the form of information, images, humor, etc.
(links to the front page of your personal blog or website are not okay).
unwelcome links (to commercial products or services of others, offensive material etc. ) will be redacted.
and, ...
yes, spam gets banned.
no, we do not post fake comments.

LOG IN VIA

FIFA world cup 2010 (14 articles)

designing south africa

this past summer designboom participated in designing south africa, a multi-media documentary exploring (read more)

world cup mobile medical unit

to handle all medical emergencies during the world cup, the western cape department of health designed a (read more)

world cup mosaics

the city of cape town developed an integrated rapid transit system that features work by local artists (read more)

touring cape town stadium

while not as large as its sister stadium in johannesburg, cape town’s new stadium in green point has a (read more)

making the makarapa

fans sporting their teams’ makarapa was a ubiquitous scene during the 2010 world cup in south africa. (read more)

POPULAR TODAY ARCHITECTURE

paolo venturella: solar powered mosque, pristina

constructed out of a series of louvers, the facade is covered with thin photovoltaic film that harvests >>

barcode architects: villa M

the extension and renovation of the intimate villa reserves a prominent space for a large collection of >>

modo designs: aranya house, india

the masses of the horizontal house are articulated by linear volumes of cast concrete, while warm woods >>

hiroyuki shinozaki architects: house T, tokyo

a narrow plot was resolved with a home made entirely into a system of floating shelves, with each floor >>

dmvA: swimming pool k, belgium

pristine white walls create an environment of escape in the rustic flemish urban fabric, allowing only >>

gmp architekten

GMP: elbbrucken underground station in hafencity

the new terminal station features a rounded gridded steel structure supporting a suspended glass skin >>

gmp architekten: tianjin national convention center

the third largest convention center of international importance will be built in china with a massive >>

gmp architekten: kunsthalle mannheim

responding to the chess board layout of the encompassing urban fabric, a composition of cubes set at >>

gmp architekten: grand theater, tianjin

similar to a seashell, a half-circular roof opens to a lake revealing the main theater spaces as the >>

gmp architekten: hamburg-harburg technical university

a glass volume sheathed with irregularly spaced aluminum tubes and steel cables spells the name of the >>

29,424 articles

copyright

thank you for reading designboom.
a relevant part of what you see on designboom is produced by our in-house-team of designers and architects. © designboom 1999-2012, some rights reserved. copyright of photos belong to each photographer/creative studio/company mentioned. more info here.

readers' content submissions
readers understand that all information, data, text, sound, photographs, graphics, video, postings, messages, software, tags, advertisements or other materials (content), whether publicly posted or privately transmitted, are the sole responsibility of the person from whom such content originated. this means that readers are entirely responsible for all submitted content, which is intended to be available to the general public, that you upload, post, t ransmit or otherwise make available through designboom. we do monitor and edit the submitted content, but we do not control / verify t he content posted and, as such, we do not guarantee the accuracy or integrity of it and disclaim any and all liability in connection with readers' submissions. readers understand that we are not obligated t o pre-screen, regularly review, delete or otherwise change the content associated with the submitted content and / or DIY readers' submissions. we do, however, reserve the right to do so at any time in our sole discretion, for any reason or no reason, and to delete any content with or without notice. readers represent and warrant that they own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to use and authorize designboom to use all trademark, copyright or other proprietary rights in and to any and all member content to enable inclusion and use of the submitted content. designboom does not claim ownership rights over the submitted content. however, readers grant us a perpetual, irrevocable, worldwide, transferable, royalty-free and non-exclusive license to use, distribute, reproduce, modify, adapt, publicly perform and publicly display the submitted content, solely for the purpose for which such content was submitted or made available. under no circumstances will we be liable in any way for any content, including, but not limited to, any errors or omissions in any content, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of any content posted, emailed, transmitted or otherwise made available through the submission system.

external links
designboom may provide links to other websites or resources. because we have no control over such resources, readers acknowledge and agree that designboom is not responsible for the availability of such external resources, and is not responsible or liable for any content, advertising, products or other materials on or available from such resources. readers further acknowledge and agree that designboom will not be liable, directly or indirectly, for any damage or loss caused or alleged to be caused by or in connection with the use or reliance on any such content, goods or services available on or through any such resource.

by accessing the designboom publication, readers accept, without limitation or qualification, these terms of use, copyrights and our privacy policy, which is incorporated in our publication.

PRIVACY

privacy

designboom recognizes the importance of protecting the privacy of all information provided by users of our web site, subscribers to our on-line education and events, recipients of our e-mail newsletter, participants of our competitions and all of our customers. we created this policy with a fundamental respect for our users’ right to privacy and to guide our relationships with our users.

signing up
for certain selected services (such as free newsletter subscriptions, competitions, on-line education courses), users must first register. recipients of our newsletter can unsubscribe using the instructions listed at the end of the e-mail newsletter. for our services that require payment (such as certain events, products and subscriptions), we do not receive and do not collect credit card information.

during registration
we ask for contact information. newsletter subscribers are required to give only their e-mail address, participants of on-line education courses, competitions and special events are asked to give also their name, age, gender and mailing address.

designboom collects information
from our website users, subscribers and customers for internal purposes. we use this information to communicate with users and provide requested services. we also collect the data for internal (and for business affiliates) audit verification purposes. we do not sell this data to third parties.

communications with us
we have features where users can submit information to us. letters to the editor and similar submissions may be made public. requests for service, support or information may be forwarded as needed to best respond to a specific request.

with whome your information is shared
when we have co-branded, or when we join with other parties to provide specific services (such as events, competitions), we may share (provide and receive) personal information with them. other than as set forth above, we do not share personally identifiable information with other companies.

security
we use reasonable precautions to protect our users’ personal information and to store it securely. the servers on which we store personally identifiable information are kept in a secure environment.

NEWSLETTER

363,952 subscribers

keep upto date with recent articles and upcoming events.
to receive both newsletters please check 2 boxes.

SUBMISSIONS