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Global design practice, Populous, created by HOK Sport Venue Event, has won the architecture design competition for the USD $400 million main stadium in Incheon, Korea, for the 2014 Asian games.

This is the first big win in Korea for Populous, which has designed Suncorp stadium in Brisbane, the Yankees new stadium in New York and is designing the main stadium in London for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The 70,000 seat multipurpose stadium will be designed to be reconfigured into a single sided grandstand of 30,000-seats, within a park, after the Asian games. It will be located between Incheon international airport and Seoul, and will be the first landmark building people see when travelling to Seoul from the airport.

Populous will design the new stadium with the local firm Heerim Architects & Planners and will establish a team of at least 10 architects in Brisbane, the firm's key Asian office, to work closely with Heerim in Incheon.

Populous Senior Principal Andrew James explained "Incheon is a world class city, and this will be an innovative world class design, benchmarked against the best in the world.

"The key to the stadiumâs success will be reducing it down and linking it into the surrounding parklands, to make it an open accessible building, for all its people. This way it can achieve a connection with the community that is vital to securing its long term sustainability and a true legacy for the people of Incheon."

James also paid tribute to the Queensland Government and the Lord Mayor of Brisbane for their help in securing the project. Both Trade Queensland, through its Korean office, and the Lord Mayor of Brisbane, assisted with meetings and letters of introduction at the highest level. Both Governments are export focused which is a great help to firms such as us working in competitive Asian markets.

Populous' London office has also secured the Overlay contract for the 2012 Olympic games.

2nd April 2009 - POPULOUS - DRAWING PEOPLE TOGETHER

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