Winning bid for Barcelona's new Camp Nou announced

The Japanese architecture firm Nikken Sekkei, in a joint venture with the Catalan company Pascual i Ausio Arquitectes, has secured a bid to design Barcelona’s new stadium.

A formal public presentation and ceremony is expected in the coming weeks.

The Espai Barca jury unanimously selected the bid after reviewing eight proposals. According to Barcelona’s official website the winning proposal stood out for being “open, elegant, serene, timeless Mediterranean and democratic”. The website goes on to say the bid “presents a very subtle attempt to intervene in the environment to facilitate circulation and achieve diverse urban usage in the Barca Campus and guarantees a clear and safe construction”.

El Espai Barca is a project that will take an investment of 600 million euros to transform all of the facilities that FC Barcelona has in the neighborhood of Les Corts and a New Miniestadi at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper.

The funding of the project will come from three places – 200 million euros for selling the surname on Camp Nou, another 200 million euros from a loan and an additional 200 million from the stadium’s own earnings.

The Camp Nou will take sixty percent of the funding – 360 million euros – with construction set to begin in 2017 and an estimated completion date of February 2021.

While work is being done on the stadium, Barcelona will not have to play their home matches at another venue.