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Visual study

The architecture gallery

Roofs, façades, floodlights and full terraces — a masonry study of the forms that define a football ground. Every frame is a design idea our newsroom keeps returning to on the road to 2026.

A continuous open bowl of steep stadium tiers
Open bowl, eastern USAA continuous ring of steep tiers
A large covered stadium roof arching over the stands
Retractable roof, TexasClimate control for a summer tournament
Broadcast floodlights blazing over a night stadium
Floodlight studyBroadcast-grade lighting arrays
Towering tiers of a vast stadium reaching skyward
Altitude coliseum, MexicoTowering tiers in thin mountain air
A cantilevered stand roof stretching over empty seats
Cantilever roof lineShelter without obstructing sightlines
Dense rows of supporters packing a stadium terrace
Terrace textureWhere Spain and Brazil have roared
An open stadium set against an open sky
Waterfront ground, VancouverMountains on one side, sea on the other
A glowing stadium façade lit from within after dark
Façade patternA skin that glows after dark
An upper tier overhanging the lower stands of a stadium
Upper-tier overhangTrapping noise close to the pitch
Sweeping decks of an amphitheatre-style stadium filled with fans
Bay Area amphitheatreSweeping decks for a semi-final crowd
The marked-out grass of a football pitch from above
Pitch geometry105 × 68 metres of hybrid grass
A stadium glowing under floodlights where the city meets the stand
Concourse lightWhere the city meets the stand

Read the stories behind the structures

Each design choice in this gallery has a reason. Our long-read traces how these forms evolved across nine decades of World Cup football.

Read the history