The first eco-friendly football stadium: where will it be built and what will it look like?
The model has just been unveiled: a fully wooden football stadium with a design integrated into its surroundings and a capacity of 5,000 seats. This innovative project will take place in Fukushima, Japan.
Fukushima United FC is about to make history with the construction of Japan’s first fully wooden football stadium. Designed by the architecture studio VUILD, in collaboration with Arup for engineering and environmental design, this 5,000-seat stadium will become the new home of the club in the J3 League. More than just a sports venue, it is intended as a symbol of rebirth for a region still scarred by past events and as a prototype for circular and participatory sports architecture.
A human-scale project
At a time when sports venues are often oversized, with giant screens, retractable roofs, and high-tech facilities hosting more than 80,000 spectators, Fukushima’s future stadium embraces a smaller, more intimate scale. The 5,000 seats are spread across four single-level stands arranged in a ring around the pitch, with a total height not exceeding 16 metres, allowing the building to blend into the landscape rather than dominate it.
This compact design is both an architectural and economic choice. VUILD explains that the form is generated from the cross-section of a two-story house, replicated and rotated to create the stadium ring. This process controls costs, facilitates construction, and keeps the project at a “human-scale”, suitable for participation by non-professionals.
Architecture inspired by traditional construction techniques
The project resonates with multiple layers of cultural memory. Its undulating silhouette draws inspiration from the steeply pitched roofs of Ōuchi-juku, a historic village in Fukushima known for its iconic thatched houses. The roof forms a frieze of triangles and folds, like a contemporary interpretation of these vernacular volumes in glulam wood.
Similar to the tulou structures in Fujian, which are circular buildings made of natural materials, the stadium integrates sustainable building practices. Presented at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale, the project promises to redefine sports architecture by combining tradition and modern engineering.
Following the Shikinen Sengu Shinto ritual of periodic shrine reconstruction, the stadium is conceived as a modular, dismantlable structure, with wooden components that can be disassembled, reused, or recycled. This circular approach prioritises resources, community, and knowledge transfer over frozen monumentalism.
Entirely constructed from local and recycled wood, the stadium merges craftsmanship, advanced technology, and sensitivity to the landscape.
Instead of a continuous block, the stadium consists of four distinct volumes separated by gaps that serve as entrances and visual breaks. This layout avoids the feel of a mega-structure and facilitates site integration.
A participatory, educational, and festive project
One of the most remarkable aspects is its participatory nature. Structural elements, prefabricated locally, are intended to be assembled with the help of residents, supporters, and community groups. Construction is envisioned as a collective project, echoing Shinto temple rituals where the community raises the building both physically and symbolically.
Alongside this festive aspect is an educational dimension: reforestation programs, carpentry workshops, and training for young artisans. The stadium becomes a tool to transfer skills, raise awareness of local resources, and embed construction in a territorial project.
Passive climate-conscious construction
Fukushima has a basin climate, with hot, humid summers and cold winters with snow. The architecture functions as a passive climate machine. The roof and façades filter sunlight, block cold winter winds, and channel summer breezes into the stands. Digital simulations optimised the geometry to reduce heating and cooling needs.
Water management is central: the project plans rainwater collection and reuse and snow storage in winter for natural summer cooling. Renewable energy systems are considered to approach energy autonomy, making the stadium a model of sustainability rather than a power drain.
A symbol of regional rebirth
In a region still marked by the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster, this wooden stadium is more than a sports facility. It represents a signal of renewal, looking to the future while preserving the memory of past tragedies. The theme of reconstruction permeates the project: modular structure, forestry cycles, collective construction rituals, and intergenerational knowledge transfer.
This symbolism extends to the Fukushima United FC crest, adorned with a phoenix. Seeing a recyclable wooden stadium emerge among rice fields and hills, raised by residents themselves, gives tangible form to the image of a region rising from its ashes.
VUILD’s Fukushima project is part of a broader rethinking of large-scale sports venues. While Olympic Games, World Cups, and championships often leave underused infrastructure, this modular, repairable, smaller-scale wooden stadium offers a concrete alternative combining ecology, innovation, design, memory, and everyday life.
References of the news
Le tout premier stade de football écologique et 100% en bois sera bientôt construit, Noelann Bourgade, le 9 décembre 2025