The Al Wakrah Stadium, designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher for the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar, has an openable roof and a seating-bowl cooling system to allow football to be played all-year round.
One of eight venues that will host games during the FIFA World Cup 2022, the 40,000-seat stadium was designed by Hadid before she passed away. It has been built so that it can be used during Qatar's hot summer months.
The design was put to the test last week, as it hosted its inaugural match ? the Amir Cup final between Al-Duhail and Al Sadd.

Zaha Hadid Architects worked with structural engineer Schlaich Bergermann Partner to create an operable roof from pleated PTFE fabric that can be extended to like a sail to cover the stadium to shade players and spectators. The cover works with air diffusers and under-seat cooling nozzles to pump cool air into the stadium, which is captured in the bowl. Cool air from the stadium will be re-cooled and recycled back into the stadium.

The architecture studio designed Al Wakrah Stadium to have a unique form, which would stand out compared to the numerous "generic" venues that are being built around the world.
"We always challenge ourselves to do something unique," Jim Heverin, director at Zaha Hadid Architects told the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy.
"Football stadiums, in particular, are dictated by regulation these days which means they have become a little bit generic and repetitive."

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