Gold Architecture, Building and Structure Design · 2024
Ferdinand E Marcos Stadium Sports Facility
by WTA Architecture and Design Studio
- A' Design Award 2024 Gold Winner in Architecture, Building and Structure Design
- Awarded April 15, 2024
- CLIENT: WTA Architecture and Design Studio
- Estimated Number of Design Views: 105,433
- Verification code 7683D5AED6 · Verify this award
About Ferdinand E Marcos Stadium Sports Facility
This is an open stadium that is an integral part of the community. A stadium that would extend the adjacent park and connect with the university. The southern end of the stadium incorporates a sloping lawn where people could walk up or have picnics and leads to an amphitheater with a magnificent backdrop. This expression of social architecture creates a barrier free stadium that is accessible to everyone. This is both a stadium and a park, a space that does not discriminate. It is social infrastructure that helps bond the community. It is a stadium for the people.
Emerging from traditions of contemporary sports architecture that celebrate both functional performance and civic presence, William Jr Ti's Ferdinand E Marcos Stadium Sports Facility exemplifies the aspirational possibilities of regional architectural practice engaging with international design discourse while responding sensitively to local context and community identity. The facility demonstrates remarkable compositional intelligence in its resolution of the fundamental stadium typology challenge of creating an enclosed communal gathering space while maintaining connection to surrounding landscape, achieved here through the distinctive horseshoe configuration that opens toward ceremonial entry while the continuous curving form wraps spectators in a unified embrace. The facade treatment represents perhaps the most distinctive formal contribution, deploying a bold geometric pattern of contrasting blue and white rectangular panels that transforms the building envelope into an animated surface of contemporary graphic expression, suggesting possible references to traditional textile patterns reinterpreted through contemporary architectural language while creating a memorable visual identity visible from considerable distance. Technical accomplishment is evident in the seamless integration of the sweeping roof canopy that provides weather protection while maintaining visual lightness, the careful calibration of structural systems visible in the paired entry towers, and the sophisticated coordination of athletic infrastructure including the precisely configured running track and playing surface. The work invites consideration of how architecture can serve as civic catalyst, creating spaces that foster community gathering, athletic excellence, and regional pride while establishing distinctive formal presence within the broader landscape. One might contemplate how the interplay of geometric pattern and organic curve, of constructed form and natural setting, proposes a vision of architecture that celebrates human achievement while remaining embedded within its environmental context, offering future visitors and athletes alike a space of inspiration and possibility.
Press Kit
- Unique Properties
- The southern end of the stadium incorporates a sloping lawn where people could walk up or have picnics and leads to an amphitheater with a magnificent backdrop. The eastern side that used to be a road now becomes a promenade that connects us with the university where students could freely enter and turns the stadium into part of the campus.
The underside of the seats cover warm up tracks that are free for the public's use. This expression of social architecture allows us to create a barrier free stadium that is accessible to everyone.
Architecture should not discriminate. Most especially against the poor who need our public space the most. Social spaces should never scrutinize or bar you because you need better clothes or shoes or even identification. You should not need a ticket to enter a space built with the people's money.
This is both a stadium and a park. it is a space that does not discriminate. This is a piece of social infrastructure that helps bond the community. It is a stadium for the people. - Dimensions & Packaging
- Total Seating Capacity: 12,000 people
Site Area: 43,820 sqm
Total Construction Floor Area: 26,613 sqm
Pitch & Track Area: 16,475 sqm - Tags
- Marcos Stadium, Laoag, Ilocos Norte, Philippines
- Production Technology
- The Marcos stadium is built by local builders, architects, and engineers. No flights or co2 emissions. Every piece of the structure is produced and assembled locally
The Marcos Stadium is sustainable by being local. This is a stadium built for only $20 million. Built without foreign loans or increased taxes. It is the only environmentally and socially sustainable stadium space that truly serves the public. Each seat is locally formed HDPE and every rail locally extruded GI pipe. Every column or beam is built up from locally produced flanges and webs.
The roof and catwalk, the steel bays, and concrete decks are robust and laid bare. The entire stadium is clad in affordable locally produced pvc roofing sheets that are lightweight and practical, and impact and uv resistant.
They reflect the most common corrugated roofing materials used in local houses.The pattern reduces the scale of the stadium to a more visually digestible form. It is arranged in a local Binakol or whirlwind pattern that creates an optical illusion representing the sea. A traditional pattern passed down from generation to generation, used for local inabel fabrics that are still made by hand and celebrated today. It is a familiar visual identity that ilocanos use to wrap infants at birth, or as veils and shawls for weddings and other formal gatherings.
The striking pattern is unmistakable from every angle. It clads this modern geometry in tradition and history. It is a monument that expresses the characteristic frugality and modesty of the Ilocano people and echoes their functional landmarks, from the buttresses of Paoay Church to the windmills of Bangui.
This is a character expressed in its boldly exposed structure, an unadorned quality that highlights the vastness, the sense of openness to represent the origins of an agricultural society. - Design Challenge
- The most challenging aspect of the design was convincing the various stakeholders of the viability of an open stadium and the importance this openness gives to the general public.
- Project Duration
- The project planning started in 2019 and was built and completed in May 2023.
- Operation Flow
- FEM Stadium operates as a multifunctional community hub, offering sports, arts, and daily activities. Its transformation involves integrating cultural elements, enhancing usability. Interaction is seamless, with open access. Better results stem from increased community engagement, tourism, and cultural preservation. Its performance excels due to inclusive design and sustainability.
- Research
- Elevate FEM Stadium's functionality and cultural significance in Laoag. WTA employed multidisciplinary methods, including site surveys, interviews, and advanced tools. Engaged local artisans and architects, yielding a culturally rich, revitalized stadium. Insights strengthened community bonds, boosted tourism, and enhanced cultural identity. Redesign serves as a model, harmonizing tradition and modernity, fostering regional growth, and community pride.
- Inspiration
- Stadiums tend to be underutilized vanity projects that only benefit a few. Why do we need to join appointed tours or buy tickets just to see a public stadium? In building this project we wanted to redefine what a public stadium can be. A piece of social infrastructure that is available to all.
The old stadium was an open track that was a daily morning destination for joggers and students. This memory of openness became the kernel for wanting to build a truly public space. The Panathenaic stadium in Athens hosted the first Olympic games. the vast and open feel of that stadium reaches out to the trees beyond creating a quiet and serene quality that has been lost in more and more fantastic stadium forms
So as we started sketching the proportions of the stadium We kept thinking about barriers in public spaces. We started imagining how we could build an open stadium. A stadium that would be an integral part of the community
A stadium that would extend the adjacent park and connect with the university. the simple sections became the primary expression of our stadium by opening up the southern face of the stadium. We are able to create a stadium park.
Colors of Ferdinand E Marcos Stadium Sports Facility
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Design Interview about Ferdinand E Marcos Stadium Sports Facility
We wanted to create a truly open public stadium that would allow free and unrestricted access.
We wanted to ensure that the project becomes a vital part of the community.
We hope to develop this idea further with our next projects.
About 8 months.
This design was commissioned by the Provincial Government of Ilocos Norte.
No it's not.
Our desire to create more open public spaces.
The design of the Panathenaic Olympic Stadium in Athens.
The people of Laoag, especially the neighboring university.
It's a stadium park funded by public money for the use of the public.
It is named after one of our former presidents.
Pen and paper. Modeling and rendering software.
The open end that allows people to just wander into the stadium.
Our engineering consultants.
New uses for old materials.
Yes we had to make sure there were adequate emergency exits in place and ideal viewing angles.
Convincing the client to make this open and accessible to the public.
We wanted to call more attention to the idea of making publicly funded stadiums open to the public.
We learned how to better deal with various government agencies.
Grand Interview about Ferdinand E Marcos Stadium Sports Facility
Social Architecture is the overall design agenda pushed by our studio. It began with the Book Stop Project 8 years ago and we have managed to develop and implement its various principles in our project. The very idea for the Marcos Stadium came from initial sketches we were doing of the bay sections. We realized that if we just kept these sections as the facade we would be able to create an open ended stadium that is open to all. To develop this further, we linked it with the Rizal Park in front and removed the road separating the stadium from the adjoining Mariano Marcos State University, allowing the students to access the stadium feely.
We wanted to reduce the visual scale of the stadium and allow people to see the pattern without seeing the whole building. While visiting the markets we noticed the prevalence of the inabel fabrics and the binakol patterns. The incorporation of this pattern with its traditional intent of breaking up solid colors allowed us to create a more human scale for the stadium exterior.
The sloping lawn allows us to extend the Rizal Park into the stadium itself and invites people to walk up and come visit the stadium as they pass by. The amphitheater acts as a public and free seating area that encourages people to mingle and rest when jogging around the track or just visiting the stadium. Together they provide a visually identifiable convenient and accessible space for everyone who comes by for a visit.
The main facade and roof element uses corrugated PVC panels which are used for warehouses and poultry farms in the region. This makes the material incredibly accessible and easy to use, allowing us to reduce the cost of the building envelope to 20% of what it could have cost. The early decision to use this material allowed us to explore how we would use color and mock up patterns throughout the early part of the construction period. It also shaped how we developed the connections and fastening joints for the stadium. In the end, this material allowed us to develop something that is both familiar and affordable for the community.
The removal of the dividing road was the first challenge. It meant we had to reroute traffic in the area to create a new connecting promenade. We also had to go through meetings with various stakeholders to convince them to remove the fences and barriers that segregated the spaces.
We believe that free and open access to public facilities encourages its usage. Its immediate visibility and free access makes for a less intimidating space especially for young people and encourages their curiosity to try it.
The first strategy was the decision to have it inside the city where people can easily go to the stadium without having to plan a trip to it. It allows the stadium to become a daily or weekly place for the community. The other strategy involves the removal or deletion of gates and barriers that would otherwise bar access to the stadium grounds. This social architecture creates a friendlier and more inviting atmosphere for young and old people alike.
We had to choose lightweight materials and minimize quantities to maximize the sustainability of the project. The project truly embraces the less is more ideal by incorporating less barriers and very little walls if any. We also looked at materials that would require less machinery and equipment and those that the local labor would be able to install effectively.
We've seen how the community takes pride in it and how they incorporate it into their daily or weekly exercise regimen. It has hosted the largest gatherings in the province twice already and has become the main social space for Ilocos Norte. The students from Mariano Marcos University have used it more often for school activities and unexpectedly people have been jogging around the perimeter of the stadium as well along the promenade and talking about the birdsong that they now here from the old trees that lie the promenade.
We hope that this stadium shows how social architecture can vastly improve our public buildings and create a more open and free approach to public facilities.In developing nations most especially, the underprivileged and undocumented population are often intimidated from accessing many of the public spaces that they need the most. This is a great first step to promoting how we can further develop social architecture as we continue to build upon ideas we have learned from this project.