The Estadio do Maracana stadium in Rio De Janiero was roaring with German pride on the final day of the FIFA 2014. But now that the world's most watched football event is over, what will become of these stadiums that accommodated thousands during the matches?
Two French architects Axel de Stampa and Sylvain Macaux have attempted to answer just that and have proposed to build prefabricated affordable housing stacked between the outer facade of the stadiums that will not only help ease Brazil's housing deficit, but will also raise enough money to fund the maintenance of the stadia and the homes. The project has been rightly christening the project "Casa Futebol".
"The project covers 12 Brazilian stadiums. There are actually six stadiums where we can colonize the exterior facade. Five of these have an exterior structure composed of concrete and metal columns separated by seven or eight meters (23 to 26 ft). We just have to insert pre-fabricated housing using the existing structures," Stampa told Gizmag.
The architects claim that the project could easily accommodate 1200 to 1500 people per stadium. They say that the feat can be accomplished by just reducing the seating capacity "a little bit." That way, matches and events can be hosted and profits from the ticket sales can go towards maintaining the units.
"The project is based on modular pre-fabricated houses. So the only thing that changes is the implantation of the houses," Stampa explained.
Brazil reportedly spent $4 billion to renovate and build the 12 FIFA World Cup venues. While some of them are now undergoing major modifications for the 2016 Olympics, some will be dismantled. The rest, according to Gizmodo, will either be converted into public parks or dismantled.
While many think that building affordable housing units in these stadiums are a logical step, many have pointed out the limitations of the proposal too. On their website, several comments poured in inquiring about the sanitation and the safety. One even pointed out that the size of the homes (1,130 square feet) was far larger than the 377-square-feet proposed by government housing.
According to ArchDaily, the project is purely hypothetical and the architects proposed it only to approach the housing problem in Brazil. Indeed, home prices in Brazil have been surging since the country announced that it would host the FIFA 2014.
The latest Fitch Ratings report said that Brazil's real estate market has been suffering from a demand-supply imbalance. Lending relaxations have also led to higher prices.
"Supply has not kept up with surging demand for property ownership, creating an imbalance that is unlikely to be solved in the short term," according to Brazil, Fitch, quoted by South China Morning Post. The country "suffers from a general lack of good-quality homes," it added.
