Situation

U Arena, known in its earlier plan­ning and cons­truc­tion stages as Arena 92, is a newly opened multi-use domed stadium, the first in Europe since Telenor Arena in Oslo, 2009. The arena was desi­gned by Chris­tian de Portzam­parc Archi­tecte and built by the French rugby union club Racing 92 in the western suburbs of Paris.

U Arena is located in the town of Nanterre feet of the “Grande Arche” of La Défense. This project falls within the scope of opera­tion of national inte­rest “Seine-Arche”. It stands in the rectangle formed by the new neighborhood’s road grid “embedded” in a dense urban fabric. It has a horse­shoe layout; one side is formed by an office buil­ding which will house the Hauts-de-Seine County Council from April 2018. It was to build the house of “Racing”, an ultra-modern enclo­sure, whose club will draw most of its finan­cial resources by orga­ni­zing, beside of rugby match, enter­tain­ment of all kinds.

Origi­nally planned to open in 2014 but delayed due to local protests, it opened in October 2017.

Configuration

The venue, origi­nally planned to have a retrac­table roof but instead built with a fixed roof, offers three sepa­rate confi­gu­ra­tions.

• In its rugby confi­gu­ra­tion, it will have a capa­city of 32,000.
• For concerts, it will be able to seat 40,000.
• A movable stand will allow it to be used for indoor sports, with a capa­city as low as 5,000.

To express its iden­tity as a perfor­mance space, the archi­tect has installed a main entrance on the core axis of La Défense, and as in all major stadia, the access points are on the three sides of the U shape. Under the seating, the space is totally occu­pied by recep­tion areas, dres­sing rooms and refresh­ment areas, to give them light from the street.

And surroun­ding the lower part of the seating, a “neck­lace” of glass scales forming a regular series of shells in white and gray aluminum and lightly seri­gra­phed glass. This neck­lace illu­mi­nates the lobbies and dres­sing rooms.

U Arena replaces  Stade Yves-du-Manoir which had been home of  Racing 92 since 1907. 
im Pariser Vorort Colombes, das bereits Austra­gungsort der Olym­pi­schen Sommer­spiele 1924 war. Aufgrund seiner alternden Bausub­stanz und der rück­läu­figen Zuschau­er­ka­pa­zität wurde im Jahr 2011 der Umzug in ein neues Stadion in Nanterre beschlossen.

Numbers and facts

• 6,100 tonnes: the weight of the roof at 40 meters above the ground. The roof is made up of four mega beams, the most important of which weighs 1,200 tonnes.
• Extre­mely large span frame of 150 meters x 110 meters and 14 meters thic­k­ness.
• 592 giant aluminum and glass scales illu­mi­nated by 3,000 LED strips can vary in 16 million colors. Each scale is equipped with LED strips with an inde­pen­dent IP address, offe­ring infi­nite fixed and dynamic light compo­si­tions.
• 51,754 m² surface of the buil­ding inclu­ding 11,000 m² of field.
• 13 kilo­me­ters and 17,000 m² of blea­chers.
• 16 entrances.
• A prefa­bri­cated concrete facade with 645 concrete shells (368 planes, 193 cylind­rical, 47 torics, 42 conical, 16 deve­lo­pable, 3 single, 6 compound).
• 2,400 m²: the size of the giant projec­tion screen, among the largest in the world.
• 44 Barco HDF projec­tors (30,000 lumens each) equip the hall.
• 350 HD screens distri­buted throug­hout the entire enclo­sure.
• 3,380 VIP seats distri­buted in 95 private boxes and 8 lounges.

The Rolling Stones were the first band to ever perform a concert in the stadium, closing their Europe-only „No Filter Tour“ with three shows on 19, 22, and 25 October 2017. A good start.