Dammam Aramco Stadium
- Location
- Dammam, Saudi Arabia
- Architecture
- Populous
- Lighting design
- Lighting Design Collective, London
- Role
- Lead Lighting Designer, Associate
- Year
- 2023–2024
- Status
- Stage 3 — shell & core
A stadium envelope derived from the rotational forms of the whirlpools of the local sea. The light had to follow that rotation outside, and carry it inside the bowl.
Pixel mapping on a double curve
Direct-view pixels are distributed parametrically across the doubly curved envelope in three sizes — small in the lower section, medium in the middle, large towards the top — together with a perforated panel distribution. The distribution can be programmed into themes for the main events and reinforces the whirlpool reading of the architecture.
The envelope as a lit skin
Inside the concourse, linear RGBW luminaires sit at the centre of each structural member and wash every triangular PTFE section, at a constant 800–1,000 mm from the membrane. Volumetric lighting in the upper concourse, lines on the inner bowl roof and low-resolution media bars around the seating complete a system that can react to what happens on the pitch.
Luminaires designed for the stadium
A family of columns leads the crowds to the stadium: the 16 m main boulevard column is its parent, a totem carrying digital content that moves with the crowd and reacts to events, like a digital version of processional banners. Calculated at 21 m spacing for the boulevard. The pixel luminaires of the envelope were designed alongside.
- Architecture — Populous. Lighting design — Lighting Design Collective (LDC), London
- Images: Populous, Dammam Aramco Stadium, Stage 3 report, September 2023