For the price of a seat, it’s probably much cheaper to give everybody a flat screen television at home with a recorder, so they can ‘slowmo’ it and see it much better there. Jansma argues that the first place building a soccer stadium is about designing the ‘magic place’ for interaction between people who are present in the stadium. It is very much about the shared experience of being together, seeing each other and feeling each other’s emotions. For this reason Zwarts & Jansma design curved stadiums and no rectangular forms even though this means that on the long strands there is a bit more distance to the field. The curve makes it possible that ‘all can see all’ and there is no ‘us’ against ‘them’ feeling created; that it’s feels like one organism, as Jansma formulates it. If people share an experience, they are more open and relaxed when they are in a group. The moment you share an experience, you can relate to each other and you trust each other more. Also other elements, like sound (good noise) and smell (freshly mowed grass), are important to create a sense of reality so people know that it is real what they experience.
Sharing sensual reality
Zwarts & Jansma have made a lot of sports buildings but actually, according to Jansma, a soccer stadium is a very silly building for just watching the game. It costs many millions of Euros and you use it only once every two weeks for a maximum of about two hours.
