Meanwhile the vast roof is to be covered with 8,100 photovoltaic panels, enough to supply electricity to 500 houses. TheyвЂ™re built and decorated (barely, the entirety has a very rough feeling) using the same cost-efficient materials: concrete, metal mesh and tinware. To make it possible, all sports venues are placed along one axis, which is exactly the main axis along which Biel/Bienne is growing. The idea of building a new football stadium, hockey arena and curling arena under one roof (!) was born in 2007, when GLS Architekten won the design competition with their idea of creating a very uniform design combining all the mentioned uses in a seamless way. As safety regulations changed and the stadium saw minor renovations, its actual capacity went down to just 5,500 without a change in layout.

Together with terraces in the west and south the ground grew to 15,000 capacity, largely standing room. A new one was built along the north side. While this wasnвЂ™t an easy choice, abandoning football for two years at Gurzelen means the stadium has been in operation for exactly 100 years in 2015!ДЄfter one more World War, in 1951 the stadium was hit by a fire which consumed all of its main grandstand. It runs from south-west to north-east and thatвЂ™s important, because just like most buildings, the Gurzelen stadium was also built along that axis in 1913, receiving one wooden grandstand.Д¬itizens of the double-named town didnвЂ™t use it for too long before the WWI broke out and in 1917-1918 the playing field was converted into vegetable and grain fields. The main axis determining the growth of Biel as a town is set by waters of the Biel Lake and nearby mountains. Today we give you the current and future (nearly finished) stadia in Biel/Bienne, the 52,000-strong town north of Bern, where FC Biel-Bienne was founded back in 1896, long before football arrived to many countries!

If you go by stereotypes, the latest additions to StadiumDB may assure that positive one of Switzerland. As far as stereotypes go, the Swiss are known for being precise and rational.

Future stadium design