Santa Giulia Arena: The Elliptical Heart of a New Milanese District

Located a few kilometers southeast of central Milan in the Santa Giulia district, the 16,000-seat Santa Giulia Arena hosts concerts, sports, and major cultural events.

One of the venues for the 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games, the project, a collaboration between Arup - an international planning, design, and consulting firm - and David Chipperfield Architects, echoes the city’s Roman amphitheaters through a contemporary architectural language. This historic archetype of social gathering and spectacle is expressed in an elliptical form that defines the building’s identity. The arena is slightly rotated, breaking the rigidity of the rectangular site to establish a more dynamic relationship with its surroundings.

Santa Giulia Arena: A modern multipurpose venue

Located to the west, the main entrance is designed as a progressive experience, with a wide staircase leading spectators to an elevated podium that occupies nearly the entire site. Here, a plaza covering over 10,000 m² can be used to host outdoor events.

Three cantilevered rings appear to float above the monolithic podium, wrapping the building and defining its profile. Composed of aluminum tubes, the metallic skin captures daylight to create shifting reflections. At night, integrated LED systems transform the surface into a large-scale media facade of light effects and visual content. The plaza and surrounding green spaces are defined by organic forms and dense clusters of trees, with these plantings extending toward the staircase and evoking a hillside landscape.

The internal layout is designed for accessibility, maximum visibility and a high-quality user experience. The arena is organized around a main event floor topped by two seating tiers and an upper level of lounges. This functional hierarchy allows the venue to accommodate a wide range of programming. Spacious lobbies on each level ensure fluid circulation, providing access to each seating section as well as service facilities and dining areas. 

The design team also paid particular attention to environmental sustainability, with the arena integrating strategies to reduce emissions and energy consumption, including rooftop photovoltaic panels that cover a significant portion of the building’s power needs. The system is expected to produce approximately 2.5 GWh per year; most of the renewable energy generated will be consumed by the building, while any surplus may be used locally within the Santa Giulia district or fed into the grid. The project’s construction approach has also promoted the use of materials with recycled content, in line with LEED credits and the Italian Minimum Environmental Criteria (CAM).

Santa Giulia Arena serves as both a high-capacity venue for major events and a permanent fixture of daily life in Milan.

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