Fiorentina Football Club Stadium

PROJECT AT A GLANCE Classification: Commercial Location: Florence, Italy Approx. Commencement Date: 2019 Approx. Completion Date: 2023

CREDIT LIST CLIENT: ROCCO COMMISSO ARCHITECT: PIERATTELLI ARCHITETTURE T he Stadio Artemio Franchi, the current stadium of Fiorentina Football Club (ACF Fiorentina) in Fiorentina, Italy, is a building of historical and artistic interest, built between 1930 and 1932. ACF Fiorentina was bought earlier 2019 by an American-Italian businessman Rocco Commisso, who has expressed his desire to build a new modern sports infrastructure as one of the strategic pillars of the football club.

In the public debate on the future of the old stadium, Pierattelli Architetture has proposed a new football stadium with an accompanying masterplan aimed at regenerating the Novoli district, an expansion area in the north-west of Florence. FIORENTINA FOOTBALL CLUB STADIUM

DEVELOPMENT COMPOSITION The stadium proposed by Pierattelli Architetture stands out for its special, almost organic silhouette, and its curved steel surface with rhomboidal metal mesh design. The colours of the surfaces are those of the ACF Fiorentina – purple, white and red – with a slight transparency that allows a glimpse of the distinctive elements of the stadium even from the outside. The coloured mosaic is initially characterised by a strong predominance of purple, up to the roof where white prevails; viewed from overhead, the entire structure brings to mind an enormous flower.

With its perimeter of about 600 metres, a maximum width of over 200 metres and a maximum length of over 150 metres, the stadium has a capacity of 40,000 seats. The height of the

structure varies from 30 – 40metres; the highest part, which overlooks the grandstands, is located in front of the new entrance and is designed to accommodate the journalists’ grandstand.

In addition, the stadium will have 16 different entrances with panoramic stairways and lifts; four are equipped with turnstiles for sports events and are therefore usable exclusively during such events. The main entrances, located on the main axes, allow access to a double-volume ring at ground floor level that runs along the entire length of the floor and channels the flow of people into the different areas. The project includes facilities that are always open to the public such as the double volume shopping mall and the restaurant with panoramic terrace.

An area at the centre of the second ring is dedicated to VIP grandstands, 10 skyboxes of 16m 2 each and four equipped meeting rooms for market or executive summits. This area is accessed exclusively from the panoramic stairways to the north. The last ring dominates the entire stadium and to point up the gap between the stands and the roof, does not house services, but only the dividers and columns that support the internal structure.

The underground part of the stadium will house a variety of facilities including a swimming pool, a warm-up area and a wellness centre, changing rooms for stewards as well as a large hospitality area from which the press room, skybox areas, VIP grandstands and toilets can be accessed.

THE NEW MASTERPLAN Pierattelli’s plan would see the new stadium built in Novoli’s Mercafir area, the Florence fruit and vegetable market, and includes the redevelopment of the district and its road network. Down the long sides of the project area, it was decided to create four artificial hills to mark the boundaries of the area, while at the same time providing a new green lung for the city.

Architect Massimo Pierattelli, in a statement, said: “The new stadium project certainly provides a unique opportunity for Florence, for rethinking the relationship between the building, its functions and the city, adding new meaning to the structure and creating added value for citizens, as well as for the fans.”

The new stadium designed by Pierattelli Architetture is therefore not only grafted on the existing urban fabric, but becomes part of a new vision of the city, able to combine different functions and leaving areas that are active all year round as a legacy. This is a holistic vision of the relationship between architecture, urban planning and social life, able to optimize the relationship between city life and sports.