Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot is a cutting edge sports complex.
Aside from its innovative design and dazzling appearance, Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot has a 45,000 seat stadium, an Olympic regulation swimming pool and a track and field stadium.
Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot is named after Atanasio Girardot (1791–1813), a Colombian revolutionary leader who fought alongside Simón Bolívar to help liberate much of Latin America from the Spanish Empire.
The recently refurbished space includes a 45,000 seat stadium home to the Nacional and Independent Medellín football teams, an aquatic centre with an Olympic regulation swimming pool and a track and field stadium.
There are also facilities for over 50 other sports making Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot a potential breeding ground for a new generation of professionals in basketball, baseball, rolling skating, martial arts and gymnastics among others.
Its innovative design was conceived by the same architects who designed the Biblioteca de Espana and Jardin Botanico‘s iconic Orquideorama in Medellín.
The design features an undulating roof coated in several shades of green which evoke the mountains that frame Medellín’s valley – and slender branching steel columns that support the roof and represent the flexed muscles and graceful maneuvers of participating athletes.
An exterior skin made of perforated metal allows passers by to glimpse the sporting action for free and blurs the divisions between public space and the building’s interior.
Aside from providing a dazzling appearance, the roof and perforated screen design also reduce the building’s energy demands by allowing Medellín’s temperate breezes to naturally cool the inside and for natural light to to pass through and reduce the need for artificial lighting during the day.
Such cutting edge design has allowed Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot to host the South American Games in 2010 while it is due to stage the upcoming under 20s football World Cup in 2011.
All facilities are open to the general public.
Unidad Deportiva Atanasio Girardot
Calle 48, 73-10, Estadio
(+57 4) 230 5317 – 230 5024
www.inder.gov.co
