When the rainy, northern French city of Amiens decided in 1995 to build a new football stadium, it planned for long term project. Although its football team was a Division Two club, it targeted to move up to Division One, an elevation in rank that would require the city to expand the 12,000-seat Licorne Football Stadium to 20,000-seat. Modest in size and cost, it demonstrates a singular grace and delicacy that is the hallmark of Chaix & Morel Architects. From the southwest, the building looks like an immense greenhouse half-concealed in the hollow of a peat plain at Renoncourt, a village near the old city.

Its tall glazed walls allow views to the surrounding forest, as well as the celebrated cathedral which stands a short distance away. The design developed by Chaix & Morel Architects works from the ground up, literally. To stabilize the soil, the architects dug wells in a grid pattern under the grass and filled each with rock and gravel. Supporting the Licorne Football Stadium itself are concrete piles sunk deep into the site. The Chaix & Morel Architects imposes an image of discretion and lightness, as their design implemented a simple rectangular plan for the stadium, eliminating any complex structure and minimizing the building’s weight.

The ticket office, dressing rooms, VIP boxes, press booths, and all administrative services are located in a three-story pavilion on the western side of the stadium. Refreshment stands and a continuous circulation corridor run under the bleachers. In section, the project strikes a memorable profile against the stone and medieval buildings of Amiens. The rectangular form of the Licorne Football Stadium follows contours of the pitch and proposes steeply uniform concrete seating acts as both bench and stair. The seating is divided into four sections, one on each side of the playing field.

The base of the structure is erased with the profit of large glazed and curved walls to allow daylight and protect the platforms from the wind and rain, also covering the neighbourhoods from the supporters’ loudness. The two pairs of curving glass and steel wings are barely lifted off the ground, emerging from a grassy embankment to allow optimum air ventilation to circulate between the seating areas and provide access to the field at the ground level. The result is a vast outdoor room, at once spacious and welcoming.

Regular steel rib arches at intervals of 8 m rise to nearly 26 m above ground-level, support the glass. Horizontal tubes, built into the outer-edge of the arches at intervals of one meter, act as buttresses to the glazed walls. From outside Licorne Football Stadium, the wings appear to float above a recessed first-level wall, painted sky blue. Lighting for night games is attached to the upper edge of the arc.

The 12,000-seat stadium is distributed around a strict rectangle with 12 flights of prefabricated concrete tiers. If Amiens promoted to the higher division it can add more 8,000-seat with minimal expense by inserting balconies between the curving steel ribs above the existing seating. The connecting detail to hook the balconies onto the ribs has already been designed, and the existing structure has been built to handle the extra weight.

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