Some Argentine fans crowd near a fence that has been completely closed. There are no more scheduled matches at stadium 974 but they want to take pictures. "The container stadium" is one of the great attractions of the World Cup. But the members of security, always numerous in Qatar, do not let them pass. Disassembly work has already begun. The cranes crowd the esplanades that surround the enclosure. Cover first. Screw to screw. Nut to nut. Then the first containers. Then a part of the structure. More containers. And so, as if it were a Lego, even the foundations, which will also be removed to make room for the expansion of the port of Doha. The dismantling of the 974 will be even faster than its construction. It is the first enclosure in the history of the modular and completely removable World Cup.
The idea was born in Alcobendas. “80 percent of the cost of a stadium is not the construction, it is what comes later, it is maintaining it for 40 years. A removable stadium means enormous financial savings”, emphasizes Mark Fenwick from the other end of the phone with a Malaga accent, founder with Javier Iribarren of the Fenwick Iribarren Architects studio, responsible for 974 and which also has Al Thumama, Education in its portfolio City, the RCDE Stadium in Cornellà or the new Mestalla.
Venue for six group stage matches and a round of 16 duel, Lewandowski, Mbappé, Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo and Neymar have paraded for the green number 974 – the Qatar telephone prefix and the number of containers used for its construction. His life has been short but intense. And pretty. Always sheltered from the sea breeze and with the beautiful skyline of Doha's West Bay in the background, embellishing the scene.
One of the words most raised by the Supreme Committee of Qatar and by FIFA to soften the organization of a World Cup in the desert was sustainability. And there germinates such an original project. “Spending so much money to build stadiums in countries like South Africa, Brazil or Russia so that they fall into disuse as soon as the World Cup ends is unethical and unsustainable, and FIFA was very concerned about this when facing the tournament in Qatar. That is why they were so delighted with the 974 project and we won the contest ahead of bigger firms like Norman Foster or Zaha Hadid”, boasts Fenwick. “We decided that everything was based on making a modular building that was completely packable and shipping containers are the building block of transportation. They allowed us to transport everything both by road and by sea”, he adds.
Said and done. It began by designing the containers to adapt their use to the needs of a stadium. They were all built in a factory in China. Some were converted into toilets. Others in offices. Others in merchandising sales stalls. And, from there, a modular structure was designed. “As if they were shelves to place the containers, you just had to place them and plug them in. Everything is bolted together, as if it were a large-scale Meccano”, develops Fenwick.
The disassembly process is equally simple. It is done exactly in reverse of the construction. The most laborious will be the classification and ordering of all the pieces to later be able to use them in other projects. The process can take almost a year. Meanwhile, the Qatari Supreme Committee has yet to decide what to do with the 974 once it is disassembled. The options are multiple. “The concept is like that of a toy, with all the pieces in a box that can be used in many ways. You can build the same stadium in another place, but you can also devise different constructions with other uses”, suggests Fenwick, who reveals some of his ideas: “We have proposed several options. A smaller athletics stadium, using part of the stands for a Formula 1 circuit, the possibilities are endless. With round corners you can even build a tennis court or even a bullring”.
The cranes and operators continue to crowd the esplanade of 974. Screw by screw. Nut to nut. Container to container. They are dismantling a stadium.
