Estadio Bragantino construction diary part 1

23 July: Stage one of the design process. I imported my pitch model and started mapping out the stands. I'd already done plenty of site research, but even that couldn't prepare me for just how narrow that site is. I originally envisaged the south stand being purely temporary, with the full-sized north stand remaining in phase 2. I ended up abandoning that idea pretty quickly, going to the more uniform bowl size I wound up using. The Bombonera-esque VIP stand was already locked into the design, but there was no overarching design philosophy, no real roof or facade ideas, at this point. One idea I did have was to have two levels of concourse. At the northern end, fans would enter the stand through the top of the lower tier, while at the southern end, fans would enter through vomitories at the bottom of the tier. This would mean that the concourses lined up more naturally with the existing topography. I'm not really sure why I didn't implement it - it's an idea I'll have to use in a future project.

23 July: It didn't take me long to map out the basic shape of the stands. I remember spending a lot of time moving the stands up and down to get the terrain levels just right for me.

24 July: It really didn't take long for me to get all of the seats into the stadium. I was actually a little unsure as to what the capacity would come out to - I ended up being about 1000 over the maximum capacity. Good problem to have - that capacity will come down as vomitories, disabled spaces, and video screens are installed. It's a lot easier to take seats out than to cram them in at the end.

24 July: Looking at the northwestern corner, where the stand has been tapered. The roof pillars and elevators are located right behind that, so it made sense to taper the stand. I think it looks cool too.

24 July: Main stand complete - I opted for a large number of open-air corporate boxes with a small number of general seats at either end. Given how small the stand is, it made sense.

24 July: The VIP box - this actually came together really quickly, but I was happy with it. I ended up making a few adjustments to the design over the coming months, but the majority remained.

25 July: The VIP box from the front. I thought it looked nice. Wood was chosen for the walls as I'm a big fan of wooden walls.

25 July: Inserting the main stand VIP boxes. There wasn't really much of a thought regarding how many there was - I only made sure it was about the same height as the north and south stands. That was important to me.

25 July: Working on the elevator shaft and stairwells.

25 July: Inserting the LED panels on the main stand. I was happy with them.

25 July: An overview of the site. I was pretty pleased with how it looked at this point, but still really had no clue what to do going forward.

26 July: Modelling the footpath. Just one of those formalities that need to happen.

26 July: Modelling the main stand floorplates. The site is wider at the northern end than the southern end. Combined with the pitch running parallel to the eastern road, that means that the main stand isn't parallel to the western road. As you'll see later on, that would create a nice opportunity.

26 July: Another overview image. I'm not really sure what I was demonstrating.

26 July: Stairs are installed around the stadium.

27 July: Looking at the main stand

27 July: Working on the vomitories and disabled seating. I would end up redesigning the disabled seating area, making the actual platform wider.

27 July: I modelled the floorplate and installed it into the stadium - and found out that the vomitories are the wrong height. I'd end up having to redo the vomitories. I'm a moron sometimes.