Lansdowne Road Stadium

I was there, have to say, from my position, it was only obscured if you were standing up. Though, while technically not obscured, I will say that the truss has a huge presence, and fills the rest of your field of view. It seems to be vastly over-structured for the purposes. The truss hangs down in front of you, and what’s worse, cranks in the most awful places, where a curved or at least more faceted profile would have been better. The bird’s nest stadium, ignoring aesthetics +scale, is essentially the same form, but seems to have a much more elegant structural solution (if you look closely, in the midst of all the random diagonals, there is actually a very simple repeating structural configuration) However Landsdown seems to be based on a modified version of Thomond Park, which worked there to architectural effect, moving the trusses above the roofline, and using the arched form effectively, in Landsdown it seems to be a more haphazard collection of bits. Also I really cannot understand, apart from aesthetic effect, what the louvered cladding actually does, it certainly didn’t provide any shelter from the wind when standing on the top tier.

@spoil_sport wrote:

I was there, have to say, from my position, it was only obscured if you were standing up. Though, while technically not obscured, I will say that the truss has a huge presence, and fills the rest of your field of view. It seems to be vastly over-structured for the purposes. The truss hangs down in front of you, and what’s worse, cranks in the most awful places, where a curved or at least more faceted profile would have been better. The bird’s nest stadium, ignoring aesthetics +scale, is essentially the same form, but seems to have a much more elegant structural solution (if you look closely, in the midst of all the random diagonals, there is actually a very simple repeating structural configuration) However Landsdown seems to be based on a modified version of Thomond Park, which worked there to architectural effect, moving the trusses above the roofline, and using the arched form effectively, in Landsdown it seems to be a more haphazard collection of bits. Also I really cannot understand, apart from aesthetic effect, what the louvered cladding actually does, it certainly didn’t provide any shelter from the wind when standing on the top tier.

you’ll get a better view on telly. then you only have the match to slag – it is the match you’re going for right?

“you’ll get a better view on telly. then you only have the match to slag – it is the match you’re going for right?”

You got me… I probably wouldn’t even bother to watch on the telly….

That view at Stamford Bridge is appallling!

@Bluetonic wrote:

I would love to see a photo to back that ridiculous statement up.

buy a ticket and take one yourself? I am quite tall though

@Bluetonic wrote:

You also must be blind and/or a liar. NONE of the pitch is blocked from the lower back row.

I may have been blind drunk. or maybe the upper black bit was my eyes closing – it was a GAA match.

Oh God; it’s bad enough to be bored by football everywhere else, we now have an extended ‘discussion’ about whether or not you can see the pitch if you stand up, or go on tiptoe, or lean sideways, or stand on somebody’s shoulder….
However, unlike the beautiful game, Gaelic is just a lot of country boys who can’t keep their socks up running madly all over the pitch, knocking lumps out of one another… Never saw the attraction, myself.

foremanjoe: touche! (accent omitted)

Now you’re getting personal… (The Premier League is a bunch of overpaid, terminally self-admiring people who can kick a ball a bit, and…? And you lot over there actually watch it instead of getting a life!)

Ditto. But there is some intersting stadium architecture… The new Lansdowne looks exciting if eccentric; the real test will be how it integrates with its surrounding suburb (round the edges) and how the crowds react. From a distance (e.g. Grand Canal Harbour) it looks like a magnificent alien spaceship has landed in Woking (cf. War of the Worlds).