New Camp Nou Design Selected

The news comes a little over a month after the team of HOK and TAC Arquitectes was chosen as the winner of the architectural competition for the New Palau Blaugrana. Together the New Camp Nou (stadium for 105,000 spectators) and the New Palau Blaugrana (for 12,000 spectators and including an ice rink, commercial zone, modern offices and parking) comprise the Espai Barça competition, which aims to be the "biggest and best sports facility that the world has ever seen in a city center."

Per a statement from FC Barcelona, the winning design by Nikken Sekkei + Pascual i Ausió is "open, elegant, serene, timeless Mediterranean and democratic." Further, "It is also notable for its relationship with the environment, providing depth, creating shadows and making members the stars of the facade and of the open area at all times."

The design's relatively simple form, with open concourses on the perimeter below a sloping roof, recalls the second design, by Kengo Kuma, of the controversial Tokyo Olympic Stadium. Nevertheless, FC Barcelona calls the scheme by Japan's Nikken Sekkei with Barcelona's Pascual i Ausió "a unique solution [that reproduces] the characteristic vision of the grandstand and canopy, from the inside out, a silent and powerful tribute to the stadium built by Francesc Mitjans in 1957."

Nikken Sekkei + Pascual i Ausió beat out the seven other finalists, which were selected in September 2015: AECOM + B720 Arquitectes, AFL + Mateo Arquitectura, Arup Sport + Taller d’Arquitectura Ricardo Bofill, BIG + IDOM + BAAS Arquitectes, GENSLER Sport + OAB, HKS + COX + Batlle i Roig Arquitectes, and POPULOUS + Mias Arquitectes + RCR Arquitectes.