Allianz Arena
Herzog & de Meuron
Munich, Germany

Herzog & de Meuron’s cushiony chameleon glows with rival teams’ colors

© Duccio Malagamba

For more photos click on 'photos & drawings' above. To see the people and products behind this project click on 'people & products.'

By Tracy Metz

Architect Jacques Herzog has called soccer public opera on a grand scale. Surely that makes the Allianz Arena, which he and Pierre de Meuron designed for the city of Munich, a stage on which high drama unfolds. Its nickname, “Ring of Fire,” has an epic quality reminiscent of Wagner or Tolkien—and, just like Alberich’s or Frodo’s ring, the stadium is so luminous, tactile, and enchanting, one can hardly resist reaching out to touch it.

In the fall of 2001, Munich residents voted enthusiastically to have the arena built—to the tune of $360 million for 66,000 seats—as a new home for the city’s two rival soccer teams, the Bayern and the 1860s. The stadium is meant to serve not only as a sports venue but also as a commercially viable “geschäftshaus” (business center). It contains 106 skyboxes that businesses rent for $100,000 to $300,000 a year.

Despite its international stature, Herzog & de Meuron entered the competition for the design with Alpine Bau, a German construction firm. This move linked the fate of the firm’s scheme to the contractor’s ability not only to build the arena, but Alpine’s skill at convincing the city and soccer teams that it could be built at all—something that was not immediately apparent, given the building’s oval shape (in which almost no two cross sections are the same), its cantilevered steel roof, and its novel skin.

From a distance, the building’s skin resembles blown glass, but up close, the arena reveals itself to be covered in plastic cushions made of ethylenetetrafluoroethylene (ETFE) foil a mere 0.2 millimeters thick, inflated by a constant stream of warm air. No two of the 2,784 diamond-shaped cushions are alike—each fits in one spot and one spot only, a feat of mass customization made possible thanks to computer modeling—and their installation required the talents of 35 mountain climbers.

The cushions are illuminated by 5,344 lamps. On game nights, depending on which team is playing, the entire building glows: red for the Bayern, blue for the 1860s—and sometimes white, when the arena hosts Germany’s national squad. All other evenings, it alternates between the colors on half-hour intervals.

Herzog & de Meuron designed the arena’s approach as a public procession, befitting a stage of high drama. An underground parking garage, containing spaces for 9,800 cars and 350 buses (making it the largest in Europe), serves as a podium: an artificial grassy hill to heighten the procession. Exiting the garage, crowds mix with people coming from a nearby train station, then wend their way along meandering asphalt paths toward their destination—a stream of devotees coming together in this most contemporary of urban monuments to witness an ancient ritual of combat.

Want the full story? Read the entire article in our June 2006 issue.
Subscribe to Architectural Record in print, or get Architectural Record digitally

Formal name of Project:
Allianz Arena

Location:
Herzog & de Meuron

Gross square footage:
404,723 sq. ft.

Total project cost:
$360 million

Client:
Allianz Arena - München Stadion GmbH

Architect:
Herzog & de Meuron