Qatar 2022 architect slaps down colleague over air-cooling

DOHA: Qatar’s World Cup operation will be as cool as promised: all those companies sent into commercial confusion by comments made on world football’s doorstep in Zurich this past week can relaxwrites KEIR RADNEDGE.

Dan Meis, senior principal from one of the 2022 planning partners, had no hesitation in putting the record straight  during a design and architecture forum at Aspire4Sport in Doha.

Qatar’s 2022 bid success had proved controversial enough last December for all the positive messages about bringing the World Cup to the Middle East for the first time, about its compact concept and the key promise of air-cooled stadia to combat the fierce summer heat.

A stir was then raised at a conference in Zurich when John Barrow of architect Populous criticised stadium air-cooling because “it costs a fortune and is notoriously unsustainable in large volume.”

Meis, also from Populous and on the ground in Qatar, could not have seen the issue from a more contrasting extreme.

He said: “It was an unfortunate comment from someone who hasn’t been involved in detail in the planning and not one I share. The technology is far more proven then people understand.

“It’s not actually that difficult and the technology which is out there is very proven. The trouble is that one opinion comes out into the press and goes around the world and, in this case, it’s not my feeling at all.”

Later he added: “We have embraced the same cooling technology from the very beginning. John doesn’t have any experience working in Qatar with this client or this project. It was an uninformed, off-the-cuff opinion. I’ve been working on this stadium for two years. There is commitment made by the bid committee to embrace this cooling technology.”

Meis had addressed the forum about the possibilities of constructing new-generation stadia which, under expanded domes, could accommodate not only the stadium but the supporting social and commercial structures as well as community facilities.

‘Transformability’

He said: “All of this transformability can give us a number of different uses for a stadium. You could even flood the event level and have aquatic races. There’s no end to it.”

Meis and fellow panellist Mark Fenwick were unanimous in preferring redevelopment of a stadium to razing a construction and building anew elsewhere.

Fenwick said: “Stadia have developed in terms of the ideas of sight lines and comfort. Design has also advanced exponentially in the last 10 years. But the good thing is about some old stadia is that they are in quite good positions and tend to be integrated in the community – like the Real Madrid stadium which is right there in the middle of the city.”

Meis believed that modern venue designers should be sensitive to the historic status of old grounds which needed upgrading or demolition.

He said: “Of course it’s on a case by case basis. I’ve spent a lot of time in Brazil lately and there is some great architectural history there. There is something to the value of history that you can’t recreate in a new stadium.

“If there is some history and it can be [incorporated], then it should be. Also it’s a much more sustainable approach and often less expensive.