A Sports City with a Diverse Range of Uses
The anatomy of Tehran Sports City proposes a diverse mix of uses that are aimed at affording the new urban quarter the ingredients to develop and thrive as a real fragment of city off the backbone of a mix of world class sporting venues and facilities.The proposed range of new sporting venues and facilities are considered as two fold.
Firstly they are considered venues for the staging of worldclass sporting and cultural events from international foot- ball matches through to the staging of a Formula 1 Race through to a full Asian Games and beyond to the world’s premier sporting events.
Secondly these sporting venues and associated training and educational facilities are considered to form a network of social and sporting infrastructure that the surrounding community and wider population of Tehran can use in their everyday lives.
In this way the notion of Elite Sports in Iran is supported and promoted at a grass roots level by ensuring sports, health and well-being are fused with everyday life. Tehran’s Sports City is a real city in every sense of the word where people will live, work, learn, shop and participate in culture and sport. The most sustainable model of a city is one that promotes a rounded and balanced lifestyle in every sense and aspect of life.
At the core of the brief is a series of primary sports venues that form the backbone of facilities that are required for a major sporting event such as the staging of an Asian or Olympic event through to major equestrian and motorsport events. The secondary tier of sports venues and facilities provide support and training facilities during a major event while also pro- viding grass roots sporting and wellbeing infrastructure.
Beyond primary and secondary sports venues Tehran's Sports City has significant capacity for residential, offices, hotel and retail development while also incorporating space for cultural and religious uses.A new ‘city centre’ is proposed adjacent to the primary venue complex incorporating a main shopping bazaar, of offices and a range of hotel and tourism facilities of all standards.In terms of infrastructure it is also proposed that a new railway station linked to central Tehran can be developed in conjunction with a series of multi level carparks and local transport inter- changes. A new facility for converting domestic waste to power is also proposed as a means for providing the city with sustain- able energy.
Open Spaces as Urban Glue
The existing fragmented parks are embedded within and supplemented by a series of new parks and urban squares and public spaces to form a comprehensive network of open spaces that glue the site together. The new rowing lake forms the central landscape element of the site providing not only a key sporting and recreational facility but a formal piece of landscape around which the city revolves. The new lake is fringed by a new linear ‘Lakeside Park’ to the west and ‘City Square’ containing the primary sports venues to the east. In the west of the site a large new ‘Urban Forest’ is established which will contain recreational facilities for relaxation and sports as well as providing a space for nature to re-establish itself on the site. To the east of the central lake a new ‘Great Park’ will integrate existing residential areas with the new city. The Great Park can contain residential villas, a golf course and resort and other recreational and sporting facilities.
A series of smaller ‘City Gardens and City Squares’ will be dis- tributed throughout the development providing a smaller scale of local spaces for recreation and relaxation. These Gardens and Squares will contain local facilities for sports such as ten- nis and basketball courts while also containing play areas for younger children, spaces for performance and outdoor cinema will also be included. In a similar way to traditional Persian landscapes and urban squares it is intended that all of the open spaces with Tehran’s Sports City are embedded within the fabric of the city and dened and engaged by the surrounding built form. In this way the open space network truly becomes the physical and social glue of the new city.