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cricket-grounds
The architecture of cricket grounds
By Will last year, mid-June, 3 Comments »
Riya from the Architecture Journal wrote in to let me know of a piece they’ve done: six of the best cricket grounds.
They are, in descending order:
- DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai, India
- MCG, Melbourne, Australia
- Kensington Oval, Barbados
- Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa
- Gadaffi Stadium, Lahore, Pakistan
- Winner: Lord’s, London, England
1. Lord’s, London, England
As well as Victorian architect Thomas Verity’s Pavilion, which still stands, completed in 1890, the architects who have made additions to ‘The Home of Cricket’ is a who’s who of the significant hi-tech architects of the late twentieth century. Most famous is the Lord’s Media Centre, which won Jan Kaplicky and Amanda Levete’s Future Systems the Stirling Prize in 1999.
The bulbous form is supported above the ground by two lift shafts and its glazed facade give journalists and commentators an uninterrupted view of the ground. The curved structure was fabricated using boat-building technology and was the first all aluminium, semi-monocoque building in the world.
Adjacent to this is Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners Grandstand, completed in 1996. The stand is a three tier post-tensioned structure with capacity for 6,200 spectators.
Completing the high-tech group, Hopkins and Partners designed Lord’s Mound Stand, an intervention that retained the original Victorian arcade on the ground’s exterior while building a new steel superstructure topped off with an exuberant fabric canopy of PVC-coated polyester fabric.
Less public, but an important project nevertheless, is David Morley Architects’ Indoor Cricket School on the same site. It was the first indoor facility to utilise natural light for the playing area.
The media centre at Lord’s
By Will 4 years ago, mid-June, 4 Comments »
A decidedly rubbish photo of my view from the media centre during the interval, England v Sri Lanka, June 18, 2006. I’m going to The Oval tomorrow and will have my proper camera with me – and I might pop into Lord’s on Wednesday (day off) to take some more of the media centre, assuming that’s ok with the powers that be.
