Apollodorus Architecture's Bath Arena Counter Project

Designed by Mark Wilson Jones (TAG’s Chairman) and Jakub Ryng, this project is both a theoretical exercise and a provocation. With it, the architects seek to stimulate conversations about the future of the area and inspire an unexpected transformation.

The project counters Bath Rugby’s proposals to replace their temporary stadium with a new permanent structure on the Recreation Ground (or ‘Rec’) in the heart of Bath.

“Counter projects come into being when a special place is so blighted or threatened that those who love it … can no longer stand by in frustration and impotence but feel compelled to envision something better.”

Bath is famous for the captivating quality of its environment, with its classical architecture embraced by verdant hills. But alien postwar structures such as the Hilton hotel disfigure this idyll, as do the current occupants of the Rec, the steel temporary rugby stadium and the concrete leisure centre. They butt up hard against each other, thwarting connectivity; their blank exteriors feel actively hostile to pedestrians; together they downgrade the unique river-front setting. For Apollodorus Architecture the rugby club’s latest proposal [published in May 2023] “threatens to actually make things worse” by making the temporary problems permanent.

“The drawings and visualizations presented imagine a different reality, a vision of how things could be if only there was sufficient will, investment and collaboration. We float our ideas so as to encourage citizens and stakeholders to grasp just how much is at stake, and that there exist ways of making not only this site but our cities in general more human, more desirable and more successful.”

As a pro-bono exercise, the counter scheme is necessarily indicative. Nonetheless it respects the topography and boundaries and matches Bath Rugby’s desired aim capacity of around 18,000 spectators closely enough to allow people to make meaningful comparisons between the differing approaches. In fact, the two design proposals were recently put to a public vote, with the help of Create Streets, who very generously organised a visual preference survey by Deltapoll of 1,061 British adults. The results (the details of which can be found here), reveal a 3:1 majority in favour of the counter project. Moreover, this preference appears to hold regardless of age, gender, political leaning and economic status.

Commenting on these findings Mark Wilson Jones concluded:

 “The results of this survey reaffirm the fantastic response our counter-project has received from locals in Bath. Since publishing the scheme in August, we have been inundated with enthusiastic messages of support … Clearly, the population at large still retains a grip on sanity when it comes to the built environment, and they recognise the enormous significance of this location to the World Heritage Site city.
We hope that the poll results, which show an overwhelming preference for a sensitive, contextual approach based on traditional urban forms and using natural materials, will give pause to some of the stakeholders in Bath and push them to reconsider the plans for the site before it's too late.”

For more information (including press coverage and local reaction), visit Apollodorus Architecture.