National Stadium—Brasília

Designed and completed in 1974 by Ícaro Castro Mello, the Mané Garrincha Stadium has been reworked and renamed the National Stadium for the 2014 FIFA World Cup Soccer games. A new lower tier and the completion of an existing upper tier fragment has been designed by Castro Mello’s son Eduardo, and a surrounding esplanade with a “forest of supports” has been designed by GMP Architekten with Schlaich Bergermann & Partners adding a double-layer suspended roof. The roof’s double layer of translucent membranes follows a circular geometry and is held in place by a concrete compression ring at the perimeter; a retractable inner roof concentrates at a central hub held in place by massive cabling in a structural concept similar to the spokes of a bicycle wheel.