Architect: Studio Zoppini, Italy    
Location: Sochi, Russia   

The design of the Figure Skating – Short Track Skating Arena aimed to create a unique public space which will be able to provide the town of Sochi with a Sports facility of high functional and architectural quality and in the same time a skating rink which can assure the highest performances during the 2014 Winter Olympics. Furthermore it realise a multipurpose building to be used after the Olympic Games as a structure able to hold both exhibitions in particular and Sports events, becoming one of the centerpieces of an urban, social and human re-qualification of a suburban area.

The design aims to take the best advantage from the surroundings and site feature: the great advantage to be able to view simultaneously the mountains at North and the sea at South. The designers incorporated such unique opportunity in the design. The main objective of the design is to realise a flexible and multifunctional facility. It will have a capacity of about 12,000 spectators, 6,400 of which on retractable stand. The complete removal of the stands will allow for direct carriage access to the field of play thus facilitating the different use configurations.
During concerts, the layout and structure of the stands will allow for a complete exploitation of the concourse space with no limits. Since it was necessary to realise a facility that can host the Olympic Games and at the same time assures a high flexibility for a multipurpose use in the post-Olympic period, the architects chose an asymmetric structure of the stands in order to allow for a seating reduction in the post-Olympic mode compared to the capacity required in the bid.

Flexibility means that the facility has to be provided with particular systems that make it adaptable to possible different functions, that today cannot be foreseen. Therefore the covering has been realised with a white PVC membrane. An architectural sign that interprets the link between the past and the future. But it is also a creative response to the challenge imposed by the strict restraints of a Sports facility at international level.

Technical info: PVC Barrisol ceiling
Picture credits: Studio Zoppini