Our Experience

Wembley Stadium, London.

Client: Wembley National Stadium Limited, wholly owned by the Football Association.

The new national stadium for English football, with the ability for the arena to host rugby, concerts and athletics – with construction of a temporary deck – and in the hospitality spaces – conferences and smaller events on non-match days. The stadium was built based on a financial plan enabling the client to repay the loan for construction then to make money in the long term. Designed in association with Foster + Partners Ben was Populous’ Project Director for the design of this state-of-the-art 90,000-seat stadium from sketch design to completion.

Grand Stade de la Fédération Française de Rugby, Evry, France.

Client: la Fédération Française de Rugby.

A new 80,000-seat national rugby stadium with a closing roof and retracting pitch that transformed it into an indoor multi-purpose arena. It was intended to secure an income into the future for the FFR.

The project was won in a competition, taken through to the appointment of a main contractor, and then cancelled by the client. Populous was the mandataire and Ben was the Senior Principal leading a team of French and British consultants. The project was run in French language where Ben is fluent.

The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, Temporary installation.

Client: London Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

Populous, with Allies and Morrison and Lifschutz Davidson Sandilands, were the designers for all the temporary installation for the Games including 36 competition venues and over 100 venues in total. Working within LOCOG the team interpreted the organising committee’s intentions for the Games into a built form to create an efficient and attractive environment for everyone at the events. Ben was the project lead for this.

Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Ireland.

Client: the special-purpose vehicle of the Irish Rugby Football Union and the Football Association of Ireland.

50,000-seat new Irish national stadium for international rugby and football matches and for concerts built on the site of the former Lansdowne Road stadium. Populous were the contract holders and led an international team including Scott Tallon Walker architects and all engineering disciplines. The stadium is a financial success which has become an architectural icon in Dublin, and now features on the Irish passport. Ben was the Senior Principal in charge from sketch design to completion.

Stadium Australia, Sydney

Client: Multiplex Constructions

The 110,000-seat main stadium for the 2000 Sydney Olympics hosted the ceremonies and athletics and was designed for conversion after the Games to an 80,000-seat venue for Australian Rules football and rugby. Built under a design-and-build contract for Multiplex Constructions it was based on a financial plan for the Games and beyond that enabled the builder to make a no-cost bid. Designed in association with Bligh Voller Neild of Australia. Ben was one of the lead designers on this project, which included the development of a number of ground-breaking systems for sustainable low-energy technology.

Royal Arena, Copenhagen

Royal Arena is a multi-use indoor arena in Ørestad Syd, a major new expansion to the south of Copenhagen. The project was procured through an international design competition which was won by a team led by Danish architects 3XN. Hyett led the HKS sports team which partnered with 3XN throughout the competition and design development stages. Opened in early 2017, the 16,000-seat facility accommodates ice-hockey, handball and concerts. An extremely popular venue, the Arena has so far hosted concerts that have included Metallica, Rod Stewart, Cirque Du Soleil, Sting, Celine Dion and Elton John as well as the musical Cats. With a powerfully expressed arena form, the building sits on an elevated plinth which forms a major public plaza within this new district.

ADNEC Arena, Abu Dhabi, UAE

The Abu Dhabi National Exhibitions Company (ADNEC), owners of the Excel Exhibition Centre in London’s Royal Docks, planned this development to the east of Abu Dhabi comprising a multi-purpose sports and entertainment arena and mixed use residential and commercial development. Danish architects 3XN, who had been invited to enter a limited competition comprising five international architects, invited Paul Hyett with HKS to partner as specialist sports architects. The team won the competition. Taking its architectural cues from its physical context in terms of both natural and traditional vernacular form the arena building, and the wider master plan of which it is a part, offer an architecture that is at once both iconic and confidently ‘of its place’.