Sporting success

In light of last month’s Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens, CID speaks to John Rabone of R&R Design about the challenges of designing a world-class stadium from scratch

Converting a patch of desert into a multi-purpose stadium capable of hosting a world-class sporting event – over a period of only 18 months – is no straightforward task.

When R&R Design was brought on board to prepare visuals for Emirates Airlines’ IRB World Cup 7s bid, the intention was to stage the event at the existing ‘Exiles’ site. This would be extended to include two new pitches, a back-to-back stand with 15,000 seats, a multi-storey car park and a medical/press block, all in time for the IRB World Cup in March 2008. In terms of a time frame, they were already cutting it thin.

Soon after, and somewhat out of the blue, it transpired that the existing Exiles site was in fact going to be demolished to make room for the impressive Meydan development. For all involved, this presented a whole new set of issues.

“We now had 18 months, no site and one of Dubai’s biggest global annual events to stage,” noted John Rabone, managing director of R&R Design, and lead designer on the project. “By the end of June 2006 a site on the Al Ain road had been located and a new brief had been defined by Emirates. Initially we needed to get two pitches ready by February 2007 for the local rugby teams to use, as the Exiles ground was due to close in December 2006,” he explained. “By the end of July, we had the draft masterplan and initial concept sketches of the main buildings complete.

“The Al Ain road site was now a vast area of desert with no power or water available, and the development was to consist of six rugby pitches, a clubhouse for local teams, including 12 changing rooms, a bar and banquet hall, a grandstand to seat 15,000 and contain ten world-class changing rooms, and VIP facilities, including executive boxes,” Rabone said.

The aim was to create a facility that would lend itself to most major sports. It had to be able to comfortably host intimate ‘local’ events, as well as large-scale, international sporting extravaganzas.

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“The design, whilst being a functional day-to-day venue for local rugby, netball and football, which caters for around 2,000 people some nights, also had to be designed around the running of the Sevens and be able to cater for 50,000+ spectators.”

Emirates wanted the new site to retain the feel of the old Exiles 7’s venue, whilst simultaneously representing a ‘step up’. The clubhouse, for example, blends ‘old rugby club charm’ with contemporary chic. Warm, vibrant colours are combined with high-end finishings and fixtures.

A members club was put on hold until February this year and will consist of a gymnasium, sports hall, four squash courts, a restaurant, a health spa, kid’s gym, crèche, dance studios, a 50m lap pool, outdoor pool and bar, jacuzzi and four tennis courts.

The extremely condensed timeline had a significant impact on how the project unfolded. “A timeline like this means there’s no real review time. It’s discuss the problem, make the change and build it. I’d be a liar if I said there weren’t mistakes but this is the inevitable fact given the speed of the project,” Rabone said.

“The main change in the design was, after the costs were found to be unrealistic, we decided to only construct the lower tier of the grandstand, with the option to build the upper tiers in the future,” he noted.

One of the most striking features of the overall design, according to Rabone, is a central, grass bank that flanks pitch two. “When we looked at the master plan, we wanted to create a family feel to the area between pitch one and two, where you can relax, meet friends and just escape the grandstands for an hour or so.

“When looking at the concept I’d just returned from the cricket World Cup and had seen the successful grass bank in Antigua where they’d even incorporated a small pool for fans to cool off,” Rabone revealed.

“This was a big influence when we created the banking around pitch two where fans could sit and enjoy the games in an informal atmosphere. Its incorporation would also allow the pitch to be used for concerts,” he continued.

“Seeing the response at the Sevens and World Cup to this area was really pleasing – and for once I new exactly where to find my 14 year olds when it was time to leave!”

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