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Preserving cultural heritage and celebrating local identity in football architecture

In Conversation With Fernando Sordo Madaleno, Principal of architecture firm Sordo Madaleno

By Where Is Football

October 15^th, 2025

Fernando Sordo Madaleno is a London-based Mexican architect and Principal at Sordo Madaleno. His influence extends beyond Mexico, most notably through the establishment of Sordo Madaleno's London office. There, his approach - rooted in research and a deep sensitivity to place, culture, and climate - has reshaped the studio's design process. His work has gained international recognition, with competition wins in the Dominican Republic, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.

His focus on architecture as a dialogue between land and memory has led to invitations to speak at institutions such as the Soane Museum in London. Under his leadership, the studio has received widespread recognition, including awards from the XVIII National Biennial of Mexican Architecture, Premio Obras CEMEX, The Plan Awards, and The Architect's Newspaper Best or Design. Notable honours include the Gran Premio CAM-SAM Professional Merit Award and recognition from the WAF and Architizer, A+ Awards.

We spoke with Fernando to hear about his philosophy and discuss his recent projects for Atlas Fútbol Club's new training facility in Mexico, which will be used for the 2026 World Cup, and Sporting de Gijón's El Molinón stadium in Spain.

Preserving cultural heritage and celebrating local identity in football architecture

Thanks for making time, Fernando. Can you tell us more about yourself and Sordo Madaleno?

We’re an architecture studio founded in Mexico, now working between Mexico and our new studio in London. The practice was established by my grandfather 90 years ago, and Javier and I represent the third generation of architects. We feel a deep responsibility to carry that legacy forward.

I've been quite passionate about football all my life. You know, in Mexico it’s a big thing as in Brazil and other parts of the world. So it's almost like it carries the identity of a place. And specifically talking about Atlas, it was a really interesting project.

How did the process go of selling the vision for something like that?

I think there cannot be a good project without a good client. And I always say this because, us as architects, we have the responsibility to create a space where people are going to live, where they're going to interact, where they're going to spend hours and hours of their lives. So that's a big responsibility. But I believe in this case, the client knew the responsibility that we had on hand. So when he first came to me to do the proposal of the training center, when we really started to digest the program of the training center, it looked much more like a community than a training center because you had young kids and girls, you had the first team, you have all the operations. You have people from different levels in terms of the institution.

So when we started to digest the program, for us, it was really natural to create a horizontal structure. And this is literally and philosophically because we believe that through architecture you can actually create a better environment, obviously, but you can actually change the perception of the people that use those spaces. Because at first we looked at the project as two big areas, so football and operations. But when we started to create everything as a campus and all of these green spaces in between that space is where the magic happens, when all the interaction comes about, where the young kids are interacting with their idols and heroes of the first team. So actually all of these ideas that we sold at the beginning, the client came back like a year ago and he said all the things that you were selling to me, they are actually true.

I mean, now, I believe that the community of the club, through all of these public spaces, now can be programmed in different ways, and it really has become that secret ingredient of the operations of the club. Everything is much more for the community. Internal communication, internal processes. So when you're talking about architecture, it's not like we want to design a beautiful building, but we actually know that architecture can change the way a team operates. And that for me was amazing to see in practice.

How did you make sure that this felt modern and unique and elevated, but also felt true to the club, its fans, its players, and the people that would be in it every day?

Not only just for this project, but generally as a practice, my personal ethos, and what we're trying to do in Sordo Madaleno is (create) that sense of place. I believe there are many different ways to understand where you are, right? One is through community. And I believe that is super relevant. So how the social dynamics of the community at large interact with the club? How can we engage more with the fans of the club? And then there's the other, more technical and more architectural ways of creating that sense of place. And for me, the materiality and the construction technique and how you build a project tells you a lot about the place where it sits. And then there's the other part that is about nature, landscape, and all of those things that take you back to that place.

And that's why we incorporated the brick. We use concrete because concrete in Mexico is the go-to construction system because it's cheaper and it's available, and people know how to work that material. So we really wanted to express the work of the people. So that's why you get that feeling that you're right there in Guadalajara, because we're using local craftsmen to come up and deliver the brick and lay the brick. Then we're bringing in what used to be a plot of land that was agricultural site, but before that was a beautiful countryside terrain. So how can we bring a little bit of that memory back into the project? That's what anchors the building. So the open spaces; they anchor the building and they anchor the community. And when you're talking about stadiums, it's the same thing. They are these huge pieces of infrastructure that have these enormous amounts of money pouring in, and you cannot have those amounts of money and amounts of impact as well in terms of sustainability, because of all of those square meters of construction that you're doing. You cannot use them just once every week. You need to actually create more programs that can be added to that infrastructure. So that's that's something as well that we tried at Molinón, and how can we really engage the community? How can we understand the community and how they interact in that stadium and how that becomes a platform for the people to use it 24/7 and it becomes an extension of the public space. And I think that's our biggest challenge now, because if you come across the different stadiums in FIFA, as you were mentioning, I mean, they look quite still.

Architects are more worried about how it looks than really how does the building perform? What does it give? What does it give back to the community and the people? And I think architecture is shifting in the right way. Architecture is more now about the core values of society. How can we create architecture that promotes interaction, that creates a safe haven for different activities? How can architecture really become a unifying force in this super divided world? I think we need to see that trend more in football infrastructure. I don't know if this is a real quote, but they told me that the stadiums now are the cathedrals of the 21st century. You know, it's these huge infrastructure projects that they cannot just rely on game day. It needs to be much more than that.

It feels like there's a heightened respect and value for Mexican creative perspective. I’m curious how you've witnessed that in the work Sordo Madaleno is doing. Do you see an opportunity are you excited about? I saw Rafa Marquez had positive things to say about the Atlas training ground Are you excited about how that expression can come to life through the World Cup?

Historically, we've seen that the World Cup in Mexico has really changed a lot of things. Right now we're we're living in a completely different time, right? But you know, in 1970, 1986, I think those two years really are embedded in our minds as Mexicans, as we hosted the biggest party there is in the world. So I think 2026 can definitely be that. In this moment in time, it's a quite interesting moment. You have Canada, the US, and Mexico, and with all the politics that are involved, I think it’s the best time to host something together. I mean, it would be nonsense if the three countries stopped working together. So I think this is an amazing opportunity to see the potential when we're all working together, and that would be more in the overview, I guess. But I mean, I believe we're going to be part of the World Cup as well because Atlas is going to host one of the national teams at the training facilities. So we're pretty excited by that. And I think it's a really interesting moment for Mexico as well. Every single day you hear more about people moving from the States to Mexico, from Canada to Mexico, from other places, from Europe, because there's something happening in Mexico that is quite interesting. And I think it's rooted in its culture and its architecture, gastronomy, art, and the people and the community. I believe Mexico and Mexicans in general are amazing people. So yeah, we're really excited to host an event like that.

Are there any personal favorite stadiums that you have, even if they're super small or super local, any stadiums that you feel embody that larger cathedral energy, so to speak?

Definitely for me, being a Mexican, Estadio Azteca. Estadio Azteca for me has been part of football history with Pelé in 1970, with Maradona in 1986. I mean, that stadium really carries carries a lot of legacy. When I see my national team playing there, the ambiance, the energy, its just extraordinary.

What was the process like when Atlas realized; “we need a new training center?” Was it a more proactive vision? Tell me a little bit about what that was like.

I mean, we started quite early in the process. We looked into different plots of land. At the end we landed in the place where the training facility is. And I think there was a lot of communication between us and the client. I believe 95% of the time that we do a presentation, the client isn’t expecting what we're giving. So we're quite accustomed to that because one thing that we really love to do, and it's not just for the sake of challenging the typology, but we really want to do a lot of research beforehand. So always the process starts with research: understanding the materials, nature, community.

It's a lot of information that we need to digest because we don't take these decisions lightly, right? So when we come up with a solution, we're quite confident that that should be the solution. I mean, it always changes with inputs from different parts, because it's not only the work of the architect, you know, you have lots of consultants, you have lots of people involved in the process. But really when we explained the initial idea, it was to create really a unified vision to the structure instead of two independent buildings, because previously Atlas worked in in a different way. They had training grounds all over the city. So the first team was in one place, the Fuerzas Basicas which is the other tier teams were in different parts. Then you had the stadium that was in a different place, with the offices and administration.

Everything was spread out. So when we came to the conclusion with the client that he wanted to put everything in one single space. Well, we wanted to reinforce this idea, right? So instead of doing independent buildings, we created a horizontal structure where the program really starts to happen and it almost becomes like a miniature city where you have the streets, squares, and it becomes that really interesting urban type setting when you're walking through the building. And I believe our architecture, you really need to live it. You need to live the space. You need to go there and walk the building to really understand what we're talking about. Because It's not that we don't like it, but it's difficult to portray these ideas. Because we're not designing a building to see how it looks, you know? It's more about how you interact. I think you need to go there and experience it yourself because it's going to completely change the way you perceive the building. But at the end it was through this sensibility that we started to talk about the idea of creating this concept that was completely different, that actually we ended up creating. It was, I don't know, 20, 25% more area than was previously thought of, but these are all these exterior spaces. But that became the whole thing, those public spaces. So yeah, we're always challenging the typology. We're always trying to add something to the brief, and always with information that backs up the proposal.

Because as architects, you cannot be just an artist. You need to understand everything from human interactions to psychology to the use of resources, construction methods. So it's quite particular being an architect. And the least thing that we do is design. I think we are more like the head of the orchestra. And we're just putting the pieces together, you know?

Did you finish the Atlas project before the the Gijón project or was there any overlap?

We finished that last, because we were trying to get it ready for the 2030 World Cup in Spain to be a host city. I believe that [Gijón not becoming a host city] was a major loss for the city. But they were they were in parallel. Maybe you see some similarities, it's because probably the color, I guess. But all of these decisions are not taken lightly. It's not that I love to do red buildings. It's because the research starts to give you these hints, right?

So first of all, in that project, we wanted to create social infrastructure much more than a stadium. The stadium was going to be there and we were going to use most of the existing structure, true. But really, we understood that the club obviously has red as their colours and there are many public buildings around the town that are red. And so we were really inclined to use colour to portray that it wasn't infrastructure like the typical highway tunnels, bridges: in grey concrete. We wanted to have something that would give some light and express the idea that this was for the people and society there in Gijón. I believe it could be an amazing platform for the city.

Is there a moment where you felt like, I want to do more football projects or more projects in sport? Was there something about it that, like connected you with your inner child or maybe felt a little bit unique?

Yeah. And I think it's more about the power of football. You know, I think the sport nowadays has become religion. It's just incredible how it brings people together. And many times it brings them head to head, I guess. But most of the time it's bringing the community together. It really becomes a symbol of a specific place. So for us, if you harness that power through architecture, then it's just an amazing thing because if you can actually create the identity of that community through the social infrastructure, that would be a dream for us. That's why we find it quite interesting to work on sport buildings and football specifically..

What is the momentum been from doing some projects like this? In the creative industry, a lot of times people don't know what you're capable of until you do a project like that. Has it led to different types of opportunities or reoriented Madaleno?

I think it has helped a lot in the sense that it helped us portray all of these ideas in something that is built and is there and is working. So for us, it was an amazing success. And here in Madaleno, we do from single-family homes, to stadiums or mixed use developments or hotels, or museums. So we really don't specialize on a typology. And that's really important for us because it allows us to question the project over and over, not depending on what we're doing, and I would love for us to keep on doing that. But doing these projects really has just given us a lot of information to work with to understand the impact of football. And we are looking forward for the next opportunity. I mean, these training grounds that the teams are spending a lot of money on, they can create even more things. And that's what we're saying now to the clients. It shouldn't only be a training ground. It should reflect your values. It should be a platform for the entire community, not only for the players. It should be a place where the fans and the heroes interact. But the younger kids as well, most of the training facilities, some of them have housing for underprivileged kids in Mexico.

So how can these kids have the same infrastructure as the first team? Everybody has the right to quality in terms of education as well because some of these infrastructures offer that dedication. So I believe that football teams have a responsibility within the community to create these sorts of spaces. So we're really interested in working on that typology. And we're in the UK so you know, this country is quite big for football. We see a lot of opportunities on all of this infrastructure. It's incredible to see you have like 8 or 10 teams in the Premier League in London. And you see all of these stadiums that are underused that could really be given a second chance.

Footnotes

You can learn more about Sordo Madaleno at sordomadaleno.com, and on Instagram at @sordo_madaleno. This interview was conducted by Eric Beard (@bearderic).

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FootNotes

You can learn more about Sordo Madaleno at sordomadaleno.com, and on Instagram at @sordo_madaleno. This interview was conducted by Eric Beard (@bearderic).