BDP Pattern pull off El Campín Stadium project challenges

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Luke Harrison is in a top-notch role with BDP Pattern, UK. He says that the architecture firm designs iconic venues worldwide – “Our designs are both for the fans and for the moments that matter.”

He talks about the challenges the design firm has faced in the El Campín Stadium project in Bogotá, Colombia, and how they have managed to overcome the challenges.

Luke Harrison is the Architect Director of BDP Pattern, the Sport and Entertainment sector at BDP and the driving force behind BDP Pattern’s business development focusing on securing and delivering work with the major clients globally. With over 15 years of experience Harrison has played a critical role in delivering major international sports venues, blending sound technical and regulatory expertise, a unique design vision, and a deep understanding of what it takes to leave a lasting legacy.

In an exclusive exchange with ‘Coliseum’, Luke Harrison, Architect Director, BDP Pattern, UK, talks about the El Campín Stadium in Bogotá, Colombia, project – “I think this project is a great project and it will explain how we work and how we think. We see it more as a city building project than a stadium project alone with the 50,000-seat stadium as the anchor and it is designed to be a flexible, multiuse venue that really ignites the part of the city that at the moment is just completely left without activities in between matches.”
 

El Campín Stadium

The El Campín Stadium is the main stadium of Bogotá, Colombia. It was inaugurated on August 10^th, 1938 and has a capacity to pack in 39,512 spectators. It is the home ground of the Categoría Primera A teams Millonarios F.C. and and the Club Independiente Santa Fe. It is located at 2,553 meters (8,376 feet) above the sea level.
 

El Campín Stadium Project

Construction on the new El Campín Stadium has officially begun with geological testing and early site preparations underway. The US$280 million private concession project by Sencia Colombia and ⁠BDP Pattern will transform the historic stadium into a modern 50,000-seat arena featuring a retractable roof and an extensive surrounding entertainment district. The project is scheduled for completion in late 2027 or 2028 and construction will allow the local football teams to continue playing without interruption.
 

BDP Pattern

Clerkenwell (UK)-based BDP Pattern is the sports and entertainment division of BDP, a global architecture and engineering practice with a network of studios across the United Kingdom, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Asia, North America, and Latin America. Pattern was founded by Dipesh Patel in 2009 and became part of the BDP Group in 2021.

Stated Luke Harrison, “We are one of the multidisciplinary design houses. I am based in our London studio and we do multisector more than just stadia. I represent the sports discipline in BDP and we are sports specialists.”
 

‘Iconic Stadium’

“The El Campín Stadium is in Bogotá, an interesting place and a really complex city. It has got this really strong heritage.”

“El Campín is one of the most iconic stadiums in Colombia. It’s a 39,000-plus-seat Latin American concrete giant. It doesn’t do very much than host the football matches at the moment and it isn’t really fit-for-purpose then what the client and the operator wants to do with it going forward. It kind of sits in a big concrete triangle and only the football matches are held and throughout the rest of the week it’s kind of barren and not really performing for the client.”
 

Challenges

“The brief is for a new 50,000-capacity stadium. It’s a new build even though a lot of the references that one might have seen doing the rounds online have been for renovation. There was a reference design that was given by the client and this scheme kind of encapsulates within their brief – a 50,000-seat retractable roof stadium and in the same district. The challenge that came to us was we really liked this but we can’t actually build it on program, on budget and the teams can’t really lose the venue while we build it. So, it is really complex stand-by-stand sequencing to the demolition of the whole stadium and the new build of the new stadium. And so, what we tried to do is use the site in a different way to be able to allow the clubs and also the events they host at El Campín – the music and the other events that they host continue while we construct the new stadium. But, they also pulled the stadium right away from the main avenue, this is like one of the biggest roads through Bogotá basically to the airport to the North of the city. It creates a lot of issues on a matchday because the stadium is right on the avenue so the people are trying to come off what is ostensibly a Metro but actually is a bus and goes straight to the stadium. There is lot of congestion on that road and what we did by pulling it all the way back here we created a sort of commercial avenue that all the spectators have to go through so by selling that on through our client it really helped increase the footfall.”
 

Commercial District

“There is a big commercial district coming up from the avenue with the towers and then the 50,000-seat stadium in the West side. As I said this stadium has got two clubs and we really tried to lead into that and use a lot of that to create a lot of identity especially in the Bowl. There is a huge amount of hospitality space here so it is a double stacked hospitality Boxes and two ultra stands (an ultra in a stadium refers to a member of a subculture of passionate, organized and highly devoted sports fans) in the North and the South depending on which club you follow. So, we are kind of at Stage 3 and looking to develop some of these building typologies with the local architects.”
 

Wrap-up

 

Stadium Personalities

Luke Harrison summed up by stating, “There are two personalities to the stadium. So, we have the lower level which is connecting to the mall and all of those things but also branching back to the neighborhood. So, there is a neighborhood here and there is all kind of residents too which doesn’t have a lot of amenities as well and trying to give that back to the city and connecting from that level and then the upper level as you come up the main stairs and is secure on a matchday and then the ticketing zone and you come up and then there is the podium and access for the hospitality and the like.”

“Obviously, projects of these kinds come with their set of challenges. We work with WSP as the engineering partner here and the main thing is that we were just not picking up the stadium design and putting on a new side. We actually had to do a lot of work around to ensure that it worked and there was a maximum limit as well, high limit because of the airport and so trying to get a lot of accommodation in – the 50,000 seats but also the closing roof and all the mechanisms and quite a limited site to top that. The ground conditions weren’t great either and we had to work quite hard to make that happen. So, that’s our project in El Campín.”

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