It’s time to lighten up

February 22, 2011 | Bruce N. Wright

Out of frustration with the local (Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, USA) NFL sports franchise — the Minnesota Vikings football team and its owners — for their persistent and annual demands of tax payers and the state government to help fund a new stadium, Fabric Architecture magazine contributing editor Frank Edgerton Martin and I have proposed that the state not put any money into an expensive proposition but instead have the sports org itself pay for a temporary, portable fabric stadium that uses far less construction material (lower carbon footprint) and the attendant infrastructure investment in a single location. Far better, we argue, to spread the infrastructure investment across the state, thereby providing more jobs where they’re needed. Read our full proposal at MinnPost.com, the online newspaper for the thinking Twin Citian. The idea is not too far fetched; in fact the inspiration for our suggestion came from a similar idea by a Norwegian design firm, Various Architects (VA), Oslo, that we reported on three years ago. VA’s principals assure us that the Mobile Performance Venue easily can be adapted to a 40-60,000 seat mobile stadium for American football.

Bruce N. Wright, AIA, is the editor of Fabric Architecture magazine.

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