StudioMAAC – Multisport Hall New Cairo

Studio MAAC Designs One of Africa’s Most Ambitious Indoor Sports Venues

Large-scale sports architecture is not only about capacity and technology — it is about creating places that represent a nation, its culture, and its future. This is precisely what the New Cairo Multisport Arena, designed by Studio MAAC, achieves. The Spanish studio was the only non-Egyptian team involved in the masterplan and in the design and conception of this landmark venue within Egypt’s new Administrative Capital.

With a capacity of 15,000 spectators, the arena stands as one of the country’s most significant sports infrastructure projects. More than just a sports hall, it is a symbol of national modernization and an architectural statement that merges cultural identity, technical innovation, and environmental efficiency.

Architecture with Identity in the Desert

The building’s formal concept reinterprets the traditional Bedouin tent (Khaimah) through a contemporary lens. Its lightweight envelope, defined by rhythmic triangular textile panels, creates an elegant and recognizable silhouette that resonates with the desert landscape. The structure balances monumentality and lightness, forming a compact, efficient, and visually iconic volume.

Inside, a clear span of over 100 meters allows for a vast uninterrupted interior space, ensuring flexibility for international competitions and large-scale cultural events. The result is a building that appears powerful from the outside yet surprisingly human in scale once experienced from within.

Sustainability Adapted to an Extreme Climate

Rather than importing generic solutions, the project embraces sustainability through intelligent adaptation to context. From concept to completion, the arena was designed to reduce both embodied and operational emissions.

Extensive prefabrication — including the high-performance steel structure, tensile roof system, and lightweight textile façades — minimized material waste, shortened construction time, and reduced transport-related impacts. Materials were sourced locally whenever possible, and the workforce was primarily local, strengthening the regional economy while lowering the building’s carbon footprint.

Bioclimatic design plays a central role: orientation, shading devices, natural ventilation, and airflow strategies significantly limit the need for mechanical cooling — a crucial factor in Cairo’s arid climate. Externally, high solar-reflectance surfaces, shaded pedestrian routes, and native planting improve outdoor thermal comfort while minimizing irrigation demands.

Here, sustainability is not decorative greenery, but construction logic, local materiality, and passive environmental control.

User Experience at the Core

The arena is designed from the spectator’s perspective. Its compact bowl configuration ensures excellent visibility from every seat, while circulation across multiple levels is intuitive, safe, and fluid. The textile façade filters daylight, providing a balanced interior atmosphere of brightness and shade without glare.

The integration of natural light, ventilation, acoustic performance, and warm materiality creates a comfortable environment without heavy reliance on energy-intensive systems. Accessibility and safety meet international standards, ensuring a high-quality experience for athletes, visitors, and staff alike. The venue feels both monumental and welcoming — a rare balance in buildings of this scale.

A New Benchmark for Large Facilities in Africa

The New Cairo Arena is more than a sports venue; it is a strategic anchor within the Olympic City of Egypt’s new capital, reinforcing the country’s role as a regional hub for sports, culture, and tourism.

By combining advanced engineering, prefabrication, passive design strategies, and strong cultural references, the project offers a forward-looking model for major public facilities in extreme climates: efficient, expressive, and deeply rooted in place.

Through this project, Studio MAAC demonstrates that large-scale architecture can be technological, poetic, and environmentally responsible at the same time.