Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain shortlisted for World Building of the Year

The stadium has been nominated in the sport category for completed buildings by the World Architecture Festival.

Al Ain FC team pose at the new Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium which accommodates 25,000 spectators in Al Ain. Satish Kumar / The National

The Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain has been shortlisted for the World Building of the Year award by the World Architecture Festival.

The stadium, which was formally opened in May last year with a friendly match between home-side Al Ain FC and Manchester City FC, has been nominated in the sport category for completed buildings.

It is a 25,000-seat stadium created by London-based Pattern Architects, which was founded in 2009. It was designed for its desert climate, with an outer skin of thousands of individually shaped pieces resembling a palm trunk that naturally cools the stadium. It has already won an award at the World Stadium Congress awards in Qatar last month.

“We are obviously delighted,” said the Pattern Architects director Lindsay Johnston. “HBZ is the young practice’s first completed building, and we have managed to get onto the shortlist with the world’s leading architecture practices. We are also proud to have helped to achieve this for the UAE.”

Pattern Architects also designed the National Gymnastics Arena being used at the European Games 2015 in Baku, Azerbaijan, and in April it was announced as the designer for Al Rayyan stadium that is due to be used during the 2022 Fifa World Cup in Qatar.

Maged Fares, the project director for the contractor that built the stadium, BAM International, said the design represented “a new sustainability model” for stadiums around the world.

“The collaboration of teams was inspirational and the project team relationships were key to breaking down barriers to make it happen”.

Other Arabian Gulf projects to be shortlisted included the Qatar Foundation’s Faculty of Islamic Studies, built by Mangera Yvars Architects, which has been shortlisted in the religion and culture categories for completed buildings.

In the categories for designs for future projects, the Atkins-designed Suites in the Skai hotel and serviced apartments project in Dubai’s Jumeirah Village Circle has been shortlisted alongside the new Qatar Courthouse by AGI Architects and the Al Maha Centre for Children and Young Adults in Doha by HDR.

In the experimental category, a concept exploring structural construction against the Earth’s pull, Gravity-Less, by the American University of Sharjah has also been nominated.

There are 338 total properties on the short list. The winners will be announced at the World Architecture Festival, which takes place in Singapore from November 4 to 6.

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