Populous preliminary designs of Inter home

Article posted by Coliseum, October 16^th, 2023

Image: Inter and Populous

The eminent design practice Populous – whose baby the ‘Cathedral’ project will be the future home of the Serie A club Inter Milan – recently unfolded the design concepts of the planned 70,000-capacity venue which will come up in Rozzano (Italy). The design concepts unveiled are not renderings in the real sense of the term and the same will be unbolted in the near future.

‘La Gazzetta dello Sports’ stated that the ‘Nerazzurri’ can purchase the land on which their future home will sit in the next six months.

The Inter Milan will reportedly keep working with Populous for its newly planned stadium in the Rozzano (commune) area of Italy. Their peer team the AC Milan has bought land in San Donato (commune) in Italy to build a new 70,000-seat stadium and have joined hands with the architecture firm Manica in this regard. On October 5^th, the Territorial Government Plan (PGT) was approved by the Municipality of Rozzano which states that the sports facility can come up in the area bordering Assago (town in Italy).

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Kansas City (US)-based Populous is a global design firm with colleagues spanning four continents. Working with communities of all sizes and using a range of disciplines, they create experiences that amplify the joy felt in shared human moments.

Christopher Lee, Managing Director, EMEA, Populous, UK, is a Member of Coliseum – Global Sports Venue Alliance.

‘FRONT OFFICE SPORTS’ stated that the Italian soccer giants AC Milan and Inter Milan have abandoned their shared “Cathedral” stadium project with architecture firm Populous. They are instead pursuing separate stadiums to replace their historic San Siro home.

Inter will keep working with Populous for its new planned stadium in the Rozzano area while AC Milan has opted for design firm Manica.

Earlier, ‘The Cathedral’ was being planned as a celebration of the artistic and cultural heritage of Milan (Italy). Its design was inspired by two of the most famous buildings in the City – the Duomo di Milano and the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele – and would have resulted in a unique stadium that would have stood out from any other sporting arena in the world and would have served as the home venue of Italy’s top-rung clubs – A.C. Milan and Inter Milan.

But the top-flights’ combined ‘Cathedral’ dream was shattered when in June this year it was reported that an injunction against demolishing the San Siro (AC Milan and Inter Milan present home) is set to come into effect in 2025 on the 70^th anniversary of the construction of the stadium’s second tier.

The contention is that the famous ramps of the second ring of the stadium, built in 1955, cannot be torn down after 70 years (in 2025) as the same has legal underpinnings under publicly-owned assets. These ramps cannot be demolished in the name of building a state-of-the art stadium.

Football Club Internazionale Milano, commonly referred to as Internazionale or simply Inter, and colloquially known as Inter Milan in the English-speaking countries, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy (Italy). Inter is the only Italian side to have always competed in the top flight of Italian football since its debut in 1909.

The Associazione Calcio Milan, commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club based in Milan, Italy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian football, and has spent its entire history there with the exception of the 1980-1981 and 1982-1983 seasons.

The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, commonly known as San Siro, is a football stadium in the San Siro district of Milan, Italy, which is the home of AC Milan and Inter Milan. It has a seating capacity of 80,018, making it one of the largest stadiums in Europe, and the largest in Italy.

The plan was that the famed San Siro Stadium will be demolished entirely shortly after the 2026 Winter Olympics under new plans put forward by A.C. Milan and Inter Milan. The stadium is due to host the Olympic Opening Ceremony in 2026, after which it were being planned to be knocked down and a new arena coming up on the adjacent site. But with the ‘injunction’ issue coming up the plan has reached a dead end.

The 2026 Winter Olympics, officially the XXV Olympic Winter Games and also known as Milano-Cortina 2026, is an upcoming international multisport event scheduled to take place from February 6^th-22^nd, 2026 in the Italian Cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo.

Kansas City (US)-based MANICA Architecture provides its clients with the unique combination of large-scale project experience and the personality and creativity of a boutique international design studio. Unlike many large architectural firms that specialize in projects of similar scale, MANICA is dedicated to ensuring that all of its clients are given the personal attention and unparalleled expertise they deserve.

‘FRONT OFFICE SPORTS’ quoted the AC Milan Co-Owner Riccardo Silva as stating, “The project of building a new San Siro next to it couldn’t be made because you cannot demolish San Siro, and you can’t even renovate it. So, AC Milan has found a new area just outside the City of Milan, and Inter is doing the same. The San Siro story will always remain in AC Milan and Inter’s history, at the same time, there will be a new stadium, more modern and better for the fans. It will take time – probably four or five years – but this is the direction that’s been taken.”

‘La Gazzetta dello Sports’ further stated that with Populous unbolting the above preliminary designs for the Inter future home, it is the first step towards realizing the future home plans of Inter Milan. The preliminary designs give a rough idea that the Populous-designed facility will be oval-shaped with columns along the sides and vertical curves towards the pitch. The top-notch design firm plans to take pages out of the 62,850-capacity Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London (UK) and the 70,240-capacity SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California (US).

Purchase Option

The Inter Milan has been given the option to purchase the land in the Assago-Rozzano area which belongs to the Cabassi family, Milanese entrepreneurs and builders. They can purchase the land within the next six months.

Now, the Zhang family (in charge of Inter for some time now, via the company Suning) will have to wait with bated breath for the purchase order to be approved so that the land on which the stadium will come up can be acquired.

Suning is headed up by Chinese businessman Zhang Xindong, whilst his son Steven Zhang is the Inter President.

Talks between Inter and the Municipal authorities of Rozzano and that of neighboring Assago are underway for the past several months to identify the several issues that may crop up with the building of the facility the prime being the traffic scene.

Populous informed that it will be a multipurpose arena with sustainability to be accorded topmost priority. It will come up in a verdant space and will boast sporting facilities, catering areas, shops, and multitude of premium offerings for fans.

The Inter Milan wants to present the final project plan by April 2024 so that after the bureaucratic exercises the stadium project is approved within a year and the same is ready for the 2028-2029 seasons.

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