FNB Stadium designers won’t take action against strikingly similar Russian arena
The designers of FNB Stadium have noted the similarities between their creation and a 2018 World Cup venue in Russia‚ they say‚ but they will not take any steps against the architects of the Mordovia Arena. The similarities between Mordovia Arena and Johannesburg’s 2010 World Cup final venue FNB‚ from the mosaic-like orange and white outer body to the orange seating inside‚ has attracted attention on social media. Moldovia‚ with a capacity of 44,000‚ looks surprisingly like a mini-FNB‚ which seats 94,000. Construction on the Russian stadium in Saransk‚ east of Moscow‚ began in 2010 and the Arena opened just two-and-a-half weeks ago. Bob van Bebber‚ director of architecture company Boogertman + Partners‚ who designed the revamped FNB Stadium‚ said without inside knowledge of the design process that led to Mordovia’s appearance‚ he could not say if it had been based on FNB Stadium. "All I can say is that from the images available that I have seen‚ it appears to be very similar. I am n...
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