A World Cup 2022 venue dubbed the ‘vagina stadium’ has been unveiled after becoming the first to be completed from scratch ahead of the tournament.
The Al Wakrah stadium will host matches up to the quarter-finals and contains innovative cooling technology to bring temperatures down for the 40,000 fans.
It was designed by the late British-Iraqi architect, Dame Zaha Hadid, who died suddenly of a heart attack in 2016, aged 65.
When her plans were first released in 2013 they were said to have been inspired by the flowing shape of a dhow boat, a traditional Arabian pearl diving and fishing vessel.
The drawings were topped with a structure resembling the sails of a dhow. But the images went viral with commentators suggesting the stadium looked more like a woman’s private parts.
At the time Dame Zaha was angry at the comparison, saying: ‘It’s really embarrassing they come up with nonsense stuff like this. What are they saying? Everything with a hole in it is a vagina? That’s ridiculous.’
As well as the shape of the stadium, which is 12 miles south of the capital, Doha, being designed to keep out the desert heat, Al Wakrah will also use a revolutionary new air-conditioning technology to bring temperatures down to around 72F for fans and players.
This is done by piping cold air through 100 ventilation units into the stadium, which has a 92m retractable roof to provide shade to the pitch
