The challenge to designers of a new soccer stadium outside Monterrey, Mexico, was to meet the strict pervious standards set by local requirements and the groundswell of environmental concerns for local flora and fauna. Architects from Populous and VFO, both experienced stadium designers, took on the challenge.
The marquee stadium, named Estadio BBVA Bancomer, will accommodate 50,000 visitors, mainly fans of the Rayados football (soccer) club, CF Monterrey. The stadium is being built on a relatively undisturbed portion of the metropolitan Monterrey district in adjoining Guadalupe, Nuevo León. The site is adjacent to a zoo and a future ecological park. The challenge for the designers was to keep as much as the site as pervious and environmentally friendly as possible while maintaining enough parking and amenities for the game-day visitors.
Populous and VFO integrated the site with the surrounding area. More than one-third of the stadium’s site will be green area, including more than 323,000 sq ft of grass parking called Grasspave2, a porous grass paver engineered to grow real turf grass while allowing for vehicular and pedestrian traffic. The grass porous paver is mainly placed in the parking bays. Grasspave2 also will be used to filter and return rainwater to existing aquifers. The parking lot is distributed around the stadium and integrates the existing wooded areas, and eventually will be connected to the ecological park.
Using the grass paver and incorporating other sustainable measures means that the site will exceed the required porous surface area for new developments. Visitors and fans also can enjoy the aesthetics that grass parking, trees and green space will provide.
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