Sports Architecture: High-Tech Urban Infrastructure between Identity, Enhancement, and Redevelopment

Sports architecture is almost ignored by the historiographical and architectural culture, this is even more surprising if we consider how it has always been fields of technological-constructive and engineering-structural experimentation. It is also true that from the late nineteenth century until the eighties of the last century, the construction field of the stadiums is characterized by the predominance of engineering culture that has limited its essence to structural functionalism. If we consider the Generational Theory of Sports Infrastructures with particular regard to their technological evolution (Allegri, 2006, 2021) we can see, between the late 60s and early 70s, a first important step towards the technological complexity of sports buildings with the introduction of innovative materials and construction systems for building coverings and skins. Just think of the polymeric materials of the Olympic Stadium in Munich (1972), the high-performance composite textiles of the Olympic Stadium in Montreal (1976) or the "MERO system" of the Municipal Stadium in Split (1979). The aesthetics of the machine has always been, since ancient times, the main feature of architecture for sport where structure/ technology/construction are merged in a language where everything is led back to pure function. It is precisely from the end of the 80s to the 90s, that this material-technological innovation is added to that of systems for handling portions of buildings: hi-tech for complex and multifunctional urban machines, as in the case of the Amsterdam Arena (1996) or the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff (1997). All of these are hi-tech experiments that have anticipated the latest generation of hyper-technological sports infrastructures that, from the early 2000s, have added technology as a language of aesthetic aspects. In Italy, the last major event (1990 World Cup) was characterized by functional-adjustment and interventions structural of some historical sport buildings and the construction of sports facilities set to research new materials and their application in experimental construction systems. Within just three decades, they have already been extensively reworked, some replaced, others abandoned. For example, the Delle Alpi Stadium in Turin (1990) that was demolished after a few years, or the San Nicola Stadium in Bari (1990), designed by Renzo Piano, where the innovation is characterized by a steel structure suitable for large lights, along with a transparent Teflon cover. The proposed paper investigates aspects never analyzed before in a scientific approach, between the history of technological culture, conservation and enhancement of some architectural icons sports, references of the cultural landscape and identity. The investigation runs between the needs for updating and the conservation/ enhancement of buildings with high identity value, in a delicate balance where economic-managerial sustainability becomes a strategic objective. An interesting case lies in the Italian context, where the relationship between city, stadium and cultural heritage is linked and requires specific approaches.