Cultural heritage, reloaded

On the occasion of hosting the Central American and Caribbean Games, the stadium was completely redesigned — into a multifunctional favourite place.

The Romelio Martínez Stadium is the current muni­cipal stadium in the city of Barran­quilla, Colombia, of greater anti­quity as the scene of profes­sional soccer in the city, and the old head­quar­ters of the most repre­sen­ta­tive Barran­quilla clubs in the Colom­bian first B cate­gory, declared an Asset of Cultural Inte­rest of national character (BIC).

Due to the fact that the stadium did not comply with the current norms to cele­brate sporting events, the patri­mo­nial tribune was restored, the field was correctly oriented accor­ding to FIFA recom­men­da­tions, suffi­cient areas were provided to cele­brate sporting events and the public space adja­cent to the stadium was reno­vated.

To accommodate a variety of uses while improving the stadium’s connection to the surrounding public space, the stands were divided into fragments.

In the proposal, the importance of the exis­ting buil­ding, repre­sen­ta­tive of an era of archi­tec­ture in Colombia, is reco­gnized, to propose a new distri­bu­tion to the inte­rior that allows both the public of the events and inte­rested visi­tors, to appre­ciate its archi­tec­ture.

Also, the imple­men­ta­tion of the playing field is desi­gned with proper north-south orien­ta­tion, with a slight incli­na­tion of 9 ° to the west for the correct visual viewers who are located in the north grand­stand, desig­ning the grand­stands with the stan­dards required by norm for sports scena­rios.

El Equipo Mazzanti have created a modern 11,000-seat football stadium — and a contemporary monument of multi-functionality.

Finally the topo­graphy resul­ting from the space released by the old stands, throws a height diffe­rence of nine meters between the highest and lowest part of the lot, the court being an inter­me­diate level between both, which is used to gene­rate blea­chers abroad of the stadium, areas for outdoor trai­ning and support areas such as shops that, added to new green areas, make it possible to inte­grate the public space with the stadium.

El Equipo Mazz­anti have created a modern 11,000-seat foot­ball stadium — and a contem­po­rary monu­ment of multi-func­tion­a­lity.