Mineirão Stadium, Belo Horizonte, Brasil

Architects: Bruno Campos, Marcelo Fontes, Silvio Todeschi
Text: Mariana Siqueira
Photos: BCMF Arquitetos / Casa Digital

Mineirão was inaugurated in 1965 as the second largest football stadium in the world, with a total capacity for about 130 thousand people. With its rhythmic structure of reinforced concrete and its monumental proportions, it immediately became an icon in the landscape. As Brazil was chosen to host the World Cup 2014, opportunity came about to transform the stadium into a multifunctional sports complex, a tendency that underlies the design of contemporary stadiums: to offer a variety of services that allow the building to become a focus of attraction to its neighborhood and to the city, ensuring its economic sustainability.
Since Mineirão is a protected building, the addition of new program could be solely made through the insertion of a platform at its base. The great innovation BCMF delivered has been the way of articulating this platform both to the city and to the stadium. Subverting the classic notion of a podium, which refers to a horizontal building with a flat top surface, this platform is carved on the ground and shaped accordingly, creating semi-public squares set at different levels.
Mineirão Stadium points out ways in which sports mega events can leave a lasting legacy to the host cities. Here, even though interventions are made on a building scale, they respond to the demands of larger scales, such as the neighborhood, the landscape and the city itself.

Architects: Bruno Campos, Marcelo Fontes, Silvio Todeschi
Consultants: Fernando Maculan, Mariza Machado Coelho, Carlos Teixeira
Frames: BM Consultoria
HVAC: MHA
Landscape: HS Jardinagem, Rose Guedes), BCMF Arquitetos, Carlos Teixeira
Structural restoration: Recuperação Patologias e Durabilidade das Construções
Traffic: Tectran / Modelle
Client: Minas Arena
Main contractor: Nova Arena BH: Construcap, Egesa, Hap Engenharia