World Cup 2022 Breaking News! Stadiums have under-seat ventilation…

It’s ten in the morning, a can’s just been opened, and the aroma of a beer is wafting under our noses. So, if we haven’t just rolled in from a dodgy all-nighter, what on earth does this mean? The 2022 World Cup has kicked off, of course! Well, it will on the 20th November (we’re prematurely excited), so brace yourself because you’re about to be bombarded with every football pun in the book from every direction imaginable. 

In honour of perhaps our most favourite sporting event here at mustard, each week we’ll be focusing on how each of our divisions has been involved in the preparation for this fantastic footie festival.

And first up is Built Environment, so mustard BE, it’s over to you…

Qatar’s response to hosting  FIFA’s 2022 World Cup has been rather impressive. Pushing any unflattering headlines to one side, and concentrating on the design of the massive constructions in which football’s greatest extravaganza will take place, you have to take your hat off to what the Qataris have achieved.

This is most obviously evident in the stadiums, and rightly so, as they’re going to be the featuring on just about every News and TV station on the planet. Apart from the Hallmark Christmas Channel, of course, but then you can’t win ‘em all.

There’s a handy and detailed guide to all eight of the venues here, but to get you in the World Cup frame of mind we’re zeroing in on our particular favourite right now.

Qatar signed up Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) to create the Al Janoub Stadium, and it’s a doozie! Al Janoub is located in the beautiful and atmospheric Persian Gulf city of Al Wakrah, and takes your breath away like none of the other stadiums will.

A bittersweet project for ZHA, British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid together with Patrik Schumacher conceived the project together before the sad passing of Zaha herself. This initial conception, however, was paramount to the end product and is a fitting tribute to Zaha’s outstanding contribution to architecture.

The location of Al Janoub meant that the seafaring culture of the community should be at the forefront of its design. One of the standout images of the Middle East is the stunning curves on the traditional dhow. Ever symbolic of the Arabic influence on trade and exploration, the boat’s curvilinear construction was a primary influence for Zaha and Patrik.

We’ll shut up for a second, and let ZHA do the talking: “The stadium’s roof design is an abstraction of the hulls of dhows turned upside-down and huddled together to provide shade and shelter. This is expressed in the stadium’s envelope geometry, details and selected materiality, including the roof’s beam structure that echoes the interior structure of a dhow’s hull.”

For those of us lucky enough to get a seat in Al Janoub, there are more practical implications to ZHA’s work. For a start it has a 378-tonne fully retractable roof. Secondly, and in common with each of the other seven stadiums, there are under-seat ventilation providing a cool atmosphere for any delicate derrieres. 

This can only mean one thing – no matter how steamy it gets, you won’t be sweaty when you stand up. With a stadium capacity of 40,000, that’s a blessed relief to everyone involved, and will ensure a very merry World Cup to us all. Each and every one!