Architecture Research 2016, 6(6): 154-159 DOI: 10.5923/j.arch.20160606.03 Sports Arena Development: Scalability Impact on Urban Fabric Integration Amna Aljehani * , Salim Ferwati Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar Abstract This paper examines the evolution of arenas and its integration in the urban fabric. Arenas have always been an important building type that has been used since ancient times. The integration of arenas into the urban fabric has become a recent issue with the increase interest for hosting Mega Sporting Events. Mega Sporting Events usually require large structures that sometime are poorly integrated with its surroundings. The focus of this study is to examine the history of sports arenas and its integration into the urban fabric with focus on stadium scalability. In this study, the method used to examine arena development and integration is based on a historical qualitative method to examine the timeline of arena development and impact factors, in addition to the comparison of two case studies: Khalifa International Stadium and Qatar Foundation Stadium. The paper concludes that stadium scalability is impacted by urban form factors such as land uses, density, accessibility and connectivity. These factors impact the decision to scale down or up a stadium for better urban integrations. It also proposes further research questions that can base this study as a critical background study of arena development. Keywords Sport Arenas, Stadiums Urban Fabric, Scalability 1. Introduction Stadium has been always a significant building type in the urban fabric (Sheard, 2005). The evolution of arenas into the modern stadium created some challenges and opportunities for urban integration. It is important to study the development of arenas throughout history to detect the factors that impacted its development, and to create critical background study for future development. The aim of this paper is to examine the history of sports arenas and its integration into the urban fabric based on stadium scalability. The integration of arenas became recently relative with the increasing interest for hosting Mega Sporting Events. Mega Sporting Events such as the Olympics and the World Cup requires stadiums and facilities that sometime exceeds the needs of the hosting city. This has led scholars from different fields to study this issue. Most of the literature came from architecture, engineering, planning, economics, political, and social journals. The literature played an important role in formulating the research question and design. It is important to note that there are not many differences between the definition of an Arena and a Stadium. According to Oxford dictionary: - Arena: “A level area surrounded by seating, in which sports, entertainments, and other public events are held”. * Corresponding author: Amnaaljehani@gmail.com (Amna Aljehani) Published online at http://journal.sapub.org/arch Copyright © 2016 Scientific & Academic Publishing. All Rights Reserved - Stadium: “An athletic or sports ground with tiers of seats for spectators.” It is also important to note that both the arena and the stadium are used today; however, arenas are usually smaller and enclosed while Stadiums have larger capacity with a more complex structure. This paper aims in tackling the issue of integrating modern stadiums into the urban fabric. In one hand, its study the evolution of arenas as a building type. on the other hand, it examines the impact of stadium scalability on urban fabric integration. The significance of this study lay in creating a solid critical background for future research on stadium development and urban integration, and it will raise questions of adaptability and reuse for further research. 2. Literature Review Stadiums, or arena are one of the largest spaces or buildings that impacted the urban built-from of cities from ancient to modern time. To investigate the evolution of arena's integration into the urban fabric, one must first explore the development of arenas in history. Stadia were apparent structure through different historical period. According to (Sheard, 2005 & King, 2010) the development of stadia can be seen in three periods: 1) Ancient Stadia, the Greeks and Romans period, 2) the modern stadia, the development of the European stadium, and finally 3) the Post-modern stadia, the development of stadia as an urban regeneration catalyst.