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Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy, which is responsible for the infrastructure and stadia for the country’s staging of the 2022 FIFA World Cup, has this week revealed the design for the tournament’s sixth proposed venue - Al Thumama Stadium.

Designed by Qatari architect Ibrahim M. Jaidah, Chief Architect of Arab Engineering Bureau (AEB), the stadium is inspired by the ‘gahfiya’ headdress.

The stadium has been modelled on a gahfiya headdress and will hold a capacity of 40,000. Its capacity will be reduced to 20,000 after the World Cup as part of Qatar’s ‘legacy mode’ initiative with the Supreme Committee advising that the excess seats will be donated to countries “in need of sporting infrastructure.”

Commenting on the venue, Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary General of the Supreme Committee, stated “we’ve always been very careful to combine the past with the future in our designs. The gahfiya is a continuation of that theme. It’s a blend of our heritage and culture, and a commitment to the future.”

“Our vision with this World Cup was always to complement and assist in developing local talent, and shed a light on local industry. Ibrahim M. Jaidah is a very well-known architect in Qatar and we believe he has the talent, the passion and the commitment for this project.”

The land on which the stadium will be built is currently being used for pitches by the Qatar Football Association. Early-stage construction work has already begun and it is hoped the venue will be finished in 2020, two years before the World Cup.

Al Thumama Stadium’s main contractor is a joint venture between Qatari company Al Jaber Engineering and Tekfen Construction, a Turkish firm. The Al Thumama district is situated in Doha’s southern suburbs, 12 kilometres from Qatar’s Hamad International Airport.

Dedicated bus services will be launched to transport fans to and from the stadium, which will also feature state-of-the-art cooling technology and high-quality accessibility features.

AEB, the company responsible for the schematic design, is the oldest architectural and engineering firm in Qatar. Its extensive portfolio includes the Embassy of Oman in Qatar.

Images (from top): Qatari architect Ibrahim M. Jaidah's design for the Al Thumama Stadium; an aerial view of Al Thumama Stadium and the surrounding precinct; and the Stadium's interior. Courtesy: Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC).

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