Kigali Arena
Kigali, Rwanda
Award of Merit
Owner: Rwanda Housing Authority (RHA)
Lead Design Firm: Yazgan Architects
General Contractor: SUMMA Turizm Yatırımcılığı A.Ş.
Civil Engineer: OED Engineering
Structural Engineer: Meinhardt Engineering Turkey
Mechanical Engineer: METTA Engineering
Electrical Engineer: EMT Engineering
Consultants: ONOFF Lighting Consultancy; Alara Engineering; Mezzo Studyo
The project team building this 10,000-seat multipurpose complex finished in just six months, despite working in a landlocked African country where materials typically take two months to arrive. The venue provides a modern event space and urban plaza to a soccer-crazed country that increasingly follows basketball and cycling too.
The building is also designed to accommodate sports such as tennis and boxing and can host concerts and congresses. The project team’s experience building sports complexes and other projects in Africa helped achieve the accelerated schedule. The team selected readily available high-quality materials, including long-lead items such as spatial lighting, cooling equipment, seats and LED screens.
Rwandan architects and engineers guided lead designers from Turkey, increasing collaboration and expediting approvals. Implementing Rwanda's national pattern, Imigongo—consisting of spiral and geometric motifs—on the glass facade as a shell “brings a depth of view, while the shadows of the patterns give rhythm to the main circulation,” the team says.
