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HOK Sport was commissioned by Arsenal Football Club in 1999 as the architects for the club's new ground located on Ashburton Grove, less than 500m from the existing Highbury Stadium. The new stadium brief was to design the ‘most beautiful and most intimidating’ 60,000 seat stadium in the world.
The stadium development was envisaged as part of a grand masterplan to regenerate a deprived and underutilised area stretching from the existing stadium in Highbury west to Caledonian Road. HOK Sport, in association with Allies and Morrison, CZWG, Sheppard Robson and East, developed an unprecedented regeneration scheme that incorporates 2000 new social, keyworker and market houses, cafes, restaurants, bars, commercial space and a new headquarters building for Arsenal.
Set within an 8 acre urban park, the stadium is designed as a new addition to Islington’s Civic Architecture. The home of the Islington’s football team generously set with public open space: a scarce commodity in the area.
Like the existing Highbury stadium, the new stadium looms from behind Victorian terraces and reveals itself in odd vistas. The wonderful juxtaposition of scale. The rare urban delight of the unusual with the tight grain of residential North London.
The configuration and location of the stadium itself acknowledges the predominately residential nature of the areas surrounding the site. In order to minimise any impact on existing properties, the stadium has been located as far north as possible while still allowing safe circulation around the stadium at the podium level. The roughly triangular shape of the site dictated that an elliptical shaped building, rather than a more traditional rectangular shape, enabled the building to be located over 100 metres from the nearest residential properties.
The site is linked to the surrounding neighbourhood via two vast land bridges: the bridge to the south is the width of the M1 motorway and spans 120 metres, while the northern bridge is a more modest 15 metre in width and spans 90 metres.
The stadium is organised around an elliptical seating bowl, which is arranged over four tiers. The lower and upper tiers accommodate general admission spectators with the mid and box tier accommodating club and corporate spectators. Seven storeys of accommodation house support facilities and public facilities such as food and beverage outlets, restaurants and bars.
The lower two levels of the stadium house the stadium supports facilities, commercial food production facility, the player changing areas, press/education centre, loading areas for both the stadium and the businesses on Queensland Road and areas for parking of cars, coaches and outside broadcast vans. The Arsenal Club shop and box are located at this level fronting onto a public plaza on Hornsey Road.
By allowing the stadium to be serviced from these levels the public podium area could be designed as a pedestrian area. The main entrances to the stadium are located at the podium level. Organised between the eight vertical circulation cores, turnstiles and gates admit spectators onto the lower concourse where food and beverage outlet and toilet facilities are located. Access to the lower tier is from this level.
The main Arsenal Club facilities are located at the level above the public podium. Within a dramatic double height space restaurants, bars and lounge bars offer 6500 club members an experience unparalleled in any stadium in Europe. 7 metre high glazing allows views over London with all spaces also overlooking the football pitch. A mezzanine level within this double height space accommodates the private boxes and their associated facilities. From the next level above the private box level, the upper tier is accessed. At this level food and beverage outlets and toilet facilities are also located. Plant areas in noise attenuating louvered enclosures occupy the final building level.
To the north of the stadium, in the apex of the triangular site, is a 250 unit key worker housing development. This triangular building is based around a landscaped central courtyard and rises from 4 stories to 12 at the apex. This building also houses a club shop and the arsenal community education facility.
Over the stairs that feed the north bridge, the club have submitted a planning application for a 60,000 sq ft. headquarter facility to house the club's administrative facilities. This unusual building not only houses the club's functional requirements but also acts as a gateway to the site.
For further information please contact
Helen Caswell at HOK Sport (London)
Telephone +44 (0)20 8874 7666
Facsimilie +44 (0)20 8874 7470
Email media@hoksve.com