Populous

The Municipality of Venice has unveiled plans for a new, Populous-designed 18,500-capacity stadium for Venezia. Working with partners Maffeis Engineering, the new stadium will give the city of Venice - La Serenissima - the sports infrastructure it deserves. It will be used for football, Serie A rugby and other events such as concerts. The new 18,500-capacity stadium will be part of a major sports masterplan in Tessera in the new Bosco dello Sport – a multifunctional, 116-hectare hub in the northern part of the city, designed to integrate sport, social life, education and wellbeing. The design is inspired by the surrounding landscape, with curved lines that follow the wider masterplan, interacting with the nearby arena and sports centre. The stadium’s perimeter line is elliptical, with a clean structure that places it within the Bosco dello Sport like a pavilion in a garden. “Populous Italia is proud to contribute to the Bosco dello Sport project, where entertainment and sports activities at all levels will have a transformative and regenerative impact on the area. Together with its strategic location, this project will be a catalyst for the region, capable of attracting numerous national and international visitors.” Silvia Prandelli, Senior Principal and General Manager of Populous Italia Read more: https://lnkd.in/eNWgjkKN

Even on weekends, our Singapore-based designers can't stay off the sports track. Recently, some of the team got together to raise money for a local charity by completing a triathlon. The self-organized swim, cycle and run around Marina Bay and East Coast Park covered a distance of 116.5km, raising SG$1165 for the Cerebral Palsy Alliance. Sean Chew and Edward Ratonel even managed to sneak in a brekkie between the cycle and run legs. Well done team. 💪 Michal Bednar Zakiah Supahat Züge Divya Rajalingam Nic Yang Sheng Wei Chia Luke Woolley

In sports, good design has the power to act as a catalyst. The right venue can shape a city’s identity by shifting the fan experience and sparking new momentum in the surrounding community. Today, Bruce Miller, global chair and CEO, and Jonathan Mallie, managing director – Americas, spoke at Sports Summit Latam in Mexico City about how Populous is designing for that kind of impact. The conversation was moderated by Sabrina Galante, our business development director for Latin America. From Estadio BBVA in Monterrey to Kai Tak Sports Park in Hong Kong to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, our work spans continents—but the goal is always the same: to create places that belong. Learn more about the summit: https://lnkd.in/gsh3cvYT

Sport unites people through lasting fandom — why shouldn’t modern stadiums physically enable that unity as hubs of community connection?  That’s exactly the role that new stadiums can serve, write Scott Radecic, senior principal and founder; and Anthony Brower, FAIA, LEED Fellow, associate principal, Americas head of sustainability.  “[The stadium of the future] must stand at the heart of a living, breathing, multi-use district as a place designed not only for sports but also for concerts, conventions, meetings and moments of community.”  On Earth Day, it’s worth asking: how can the places we build bring us closer together and closer to a more sustainable future? Explore the factors driving this transformational shift and industry-leading examples here: https://lnkd.in/gRkWQYPf.

Thank you Coldplay for the shout out! Our team designs venues that bring music fans together, so we’re glad you’re fans of the many years of design work that goes into these projects. Coldplay’s four concerts at the Populous-designed Kai Tak Stadium are in many ways encore performances. It has been 16 years since the band last performed in the city. Kai Tak Sports Park with its innovative acoustically sealed retractable roof on the Stadium gave the band the perfect stage to return as the first ever major music event in the recently opened venue. The performances are also encores to the band’s recent record-breaking shows in India a few weeks ago at the Populous-designed Narendra Modi Stadium. In fact, 50% of the band's current Music of the Spheres concerts in the Asia Pacific have been held in Populous-designed venues.

2026 can’t come soon enough. This month we attended the topping out ceremony for the new Highmark Stadium in Buffalo, New York. The stadium will deliver an atmosphere for football that draws fans into the energy and spirit of Buffalo — one that gives fans a brand-new home for the Bills’ storied culture and sets up football in Buffalo for years to come. Set to open in fall 2026, the stadium pays homage to the historic architecture of Buffalo and the dynamic, electric fan base dedicated to the Bills — we see you, #BillsMafia! Learn more about the stadium here: https://lnkd.in/gxnnSFcX

Climate Pledge Arena has won Gold for Overall Sustainable Architecture Project in the 2024 World Architecture News | World Interiors News (WAN) Awards! The WAN Awards spotlight exceptional design talent around the world, highlighting architecture’s far-reaching and transformative impact.   As the world’s first arena to achieve Zero Carbon certification from the International Living Future Institute (ILFI), Climate Pledge Arena lives up to its name—and then some.   It sends a powerful message that it’s possible to create complicated, beautiful structures that are environmentally sustainable and contain every contemporary amenity. Learn more: https://bit.ly/4cIjYt9

Populous APAC Sustainability Design Lead Kavita Gonsalves is facilitating the Australian Institute of Architects Living Design Series with Dominika Richards, Deicke Richards Senior Architect, with the first event taking place online. Date: 30th April Time: 12-1pm AEST Price: Free to attend The Living Design Series emphasises sustainable and adaptable design solutions, showcasing building and their spaces as dynamic entities that serve the needs of users. It initiates dialogue on how design can shape healthier and more resilient environments for people and the planet. This series has been curated by the Queensland Climate Action and Sustainability Committee. In our inaugural April 2025 webinar as Jim Gall presents Killarney Retreat—an off-grid, low-budget, 9.5-star sustainable home designed for extreme climate conditions. For more information and to register, follow this link: https://bit.ly/4jbMYfj

Populous Senior Principal and President of Populous France François Clément presented at the World Football Summit in Morocco last week. Clement drew on his experience across projects as diverse as the Aviva stadium, the new Stade de la Meinau for Racing Strasbourg and the Paris Olympics to talk about how the right design choices lead to enhanced fan experience, increased revenue opportunities and community benefits. He showed the new Stade Hassan II in Morocco - developed alongside Oualalou+Choi, currently under construction and set to be the largest football stadium in the world - and the new Kai Tak Sports Park in Hong Kong as examples of large stadium-led masterplans that combine extra-ordinary fan experience with large-scale community facilities.

Good design has the power to shape human experience. Through “Curated Serendipity,” we utilize design to cultivate seemingly organic experiences and open-ended spaces that uniquely cater to each end user. As Riki Nishimura, AIA, principal, senior urban designer, recently shared in Forbes: “Through expert design, experiences can be cultivated within a community of buildings and spaces rather than merely constructing a solo building, and a development can transform physical spaces into vibrant community destinations. ” Learn more about Curated Serendipity in his full article: https://lnkd.in/gfSUk7uB