Aerial render of a spiral-shaped stadium at dusk in a green landscape

The Spinner

International cricket stadium

Year: 2019
Place: Ghaziabad, India
Context: Architecture school, fourth year. Group of two
Role: Concept, Grasshopper scripting, planning, circulation, visualisation

50,000: people, usually through one concourse
Tensegrity: roof under a tensile fabric cover
Grasshopper: script behind the spiral concourse

Cricket is India’s secular religion. It is the only thing that puts 50,000 strangers in the same room, cheering for the same thing.

01One bottleneck

Every stadium I studied funnelled 50,000 people through the same concourse. I asked what would happen if the circulation itself became part of the spectacle: a spiral where the journey to your seat is as dynamic as the match.

Render from the upper stand looking across blue seating to the pitch — The view you are walking towards.

02The spin of a ball

The form starts from the spin of a ball. A spline generated in Grasshopper becomes the concourse: solid volumes are extracted from it and concaved into ramps. The same spiral shapes the stands, so the way round and the way up to your seat are one route.

Render of a white curving concourse with people walking under a lattice roof — The spiral concourse.

Drawing sheet with two circular stadium plans and a long section — Concourse and gallery plans, with the section below.

03The roof

The roof is a tensegrity structure of curved strings and trusses under a tensile fabric cover. Three stands sit around the field on X-shaped columns.

Exploded drawing of the stadium in six layers — From the top: tensegrity roof, fabric cover, circulation, X-columns, stands, field.

Render looking up at a white lattice roof structure — Under the roof.

04Outcome

Drawn: Site, concourse and gallery plans, section, exploded structure, renders
Team: Two. Entered in a national student competition, 2019
Tools: Rhino, Grasshopper, Lumion