10N Collective

For a month, we've made the case that the place is the prize. We opened this series asking what makes a host city worthy of its moment in the spotlight. We landed on what we know, it’s the feeling in a place that turns a match into a memory, whether you're in the stadium, the fan zone, or on the sofa at home. This World Cup belonged to North America. Mexico City, Miami, San Francisco, Toronto, Vancouver, all the cities our teams call home, became stages for it. So, before the final whistle, that's where we went first, with rolls of tape and posters under arm. Supporters of Soul. But that phrase has always meant more than just one place or one event. It's the belief that a stadium can be an ambassador for its community. It's the belief that a host city's real legacy is written after the tournament leaves, and the belief that we can design for moments when legends are created and stories are written. For us, the place is the prize. #SupportersofSoul WW+P │ 10 Design │ FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects │ dhk Architects │ U+A │ Omrania 10n Collective, created by Egis

As the 2026 FIFA World Cup almost comes to a close in North America, Europe is already preparing to host the 2030 tournament at host cities across Spain, Portugal, and Morocco. 10n Collective’s sports specialists at FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects are designing a new stadium for Spain – the Nou Mestalla in Valencia. The project is a very special one for the office, a dream the studio has pursued for almost 20 years. Co-working with Valencia CF’s technical teams, every aspect of the stadium has been assessed to optimise its urban impact, commercial viability, and environmental performance. Salvador Alonso, FIA’s sports director said, “We’ve had to strike a careful balance, because what some consider an expense, others see as an investment. It’s not just a simple container for people on match days; it’s a meeting point for people 365 days a year, a place that can host a tour for local school kids as well as the greatest sporting spectacles.” “Stadiums are incredibly emotional buildings. They’re ambassadors for many different communities, catalysts that unite rather than separate society. The idea that they’re battlefields for opposing fans must be banished forever; a soccer match should be a party. Anyone who’s been to Anfield and sung “You’ll never walk alone” alongside thousands of Liverpool fans will know what we’re talking about. In the current Mestalla, I’ve experienced moments that gave me goosebumps, and we’ll do it again in the new one.” For us, the place is the prize. #SupportersofSoul WW+P │ 10 Design │ FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects │ dhk Architects │ U+A │ Omrania 10n Collective, created by Egis

We all remember where we were when sporting history was made, when our national team united us in collective hope. These are the moments when legends are created and stories are written. And these are moments that are inseparable from place. For Malamulo Banda at dhk Architects, it was the spirit of Livreville. "For every Zambian, Libreville was a place of permanent grief -the site of the tragic 1993 plane crash that wiped out our entire national team, golden generation. But 19 years later, the 2012 AFCON final brought us right back. My dad and I sat glued to the TV, completely overwhelmed by emotion as we watched Kalusha Bwalya, the legendary captain who had miraculously missed that fatal 1993 flight, lead the nation from the sidelines, carrying the memory of his fallen brothers. When Zambia scored the winning penalty against the Ivory Coast, the dam broke, and my dad and I burst into shouts of joy; in the exact airspace where we had suffered our darkest tragedy, we had just claimed our glory." And Jason VanBruaene and Brooke Azumi of 10 Design were at this year’s World Cup in Seattle. “We went to the US vs Australia match. It was an incredible day – our first US men’s team match, a big win, and the perfect Seattle summer day to show off our city on a global stage. All of downtown was buzzing.” For Alejandra Fenwick at FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects, it was a dream come true to visit Qatar for the 2022 World Cup. “There was a real sense of joy in the streets. Supporters from across the world shared the same spaces, journeys, and emotions. And I got to experience three of the World Cup venues we’d designed firsthand.” For Matt Peterson, AIA, 10 Design, it was the Premier League, watching Fulham FC take on Crystal Palace in the FA Cup Semi-Finals. “The atmosphere inside the intimate brick stadium was electric. Perfect weather, a great match, and an overall perfect day, all made possible by the things England does so well: public transit, beautiful parks, thoughtful urban design, great pubs, and an incredible football culture.” For Raffaella Rospo, WW+P, it was 2022 in Wales. “I’m Italian, and after many years of watching Italy “almost” win but never manage a Six Nations victory, I went with my family to the Principality Stadium in 2022 to see Italy win for the first time in almost a decade. It was a glorious day.” As supporters of soul, 10n Collective’s constellation of companies understand the memory-making power of major sports events and, being collective in design but also in spirit, have the scale to enable them with multiplied impact. For us, the place is the prize. Read all the beautiful memories here: https://lnkd.in/dPNEEe6S 10n Collective, created by Egis

Some moments just matter more. #SupportersofSoul WW+P │ 10 Design │ FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects │ dhk Architects │ U+A │ Omrania 10n Collective, created by Egis

Seattle's World Cup stadium was thirty years in the making. The nineties referendum that funded it explicitly named hosting the World Cup as one of its purposes.   For Jason VanBruaene, of 10n Collective’s 10 Design, who lives and works in the city - saw it land, with a bang, this summer. "Seattle planned thirty years ahead of time for this event."   Seattle also spent years replacing an elevated highway that had cut the waterfront off from downtown and the stadiums. Once it came down, the waterfront hosted watch parties on the water, a short walk from the stadium. "Car-centric cities should learn from the difference in experience between their remote, suburban venues and Seattle’s walkable one," Jason says.   10 Design saw the same principle at work in Miami, another 2026 host city, and home to our Miami team. The team set a new mixed-use direction at the Miami Design District, weaving together art, architecture, and urbanism. They reworked the street grid at a finer grain and threaded in alleyways at a more intimate scale, giving outdoor cafes and small boutiques room to sit among the bigger names. The scheme became the first LEED Gold neighbourhood development in Florida. A once-gritty neighbourhood turned into a destination.   Bruce Wright, AIA, LEED AP from 10 Design, based in San Francisco, noticed something else. A country that usually picks American football over the world's game gave itself over to the tournament completely. "People may be politically polarised, but the World Cup is bringing everyone out as one. Like the Olympics, but better."   What separates a busy space from a living, breathing one? "Just watch a match. Patriotism and worship of the global soccer gods, Messi, Ronaldo, Mbappé."   Good hosting comes down to quality logistics and hospitality, keeping visitors focused on the good stuff while the details get handled quietly behind the scenes. "Legacy is decided by the users and the community," Bruce says. "Careful planning, design, delivery, and craft. Deliver on those, and you'll find legacy."   For us, the place is the prize. #SupportersofSoul WW+P │ 10 Design │ FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects │ dhk Architects │ U+A │ Omrania 10n Collective, created by Egis

Working in sustainable architecture? 🌿 We do! But we don't just help other people design sustainably, we also walk the walk, we live in it and... we love it! Last week, Prudence Ivey from @TheStandard newspaper visited our humble Passivhaus Trust EnerPHit retrofit house (not yet certified!) to see how it holds up in a heatwave. We talked through the basics of building physics behind it: when you super-insulate a home, keep solar gain out, and night-purge in hot weather, the "coolth" stays locked inside during the day, enough to hold a comfortable ~25°C. It does gets much harder during tropical nights, when temperatures never drop below 20°C, which was the case a week or so ago, but we managed to hold ~27°C still. But fundamentally, it's simple physics: insulate, keep the heat out, and cool down at night. Simple physics. Serious comfort. ☺️ https://lnkd.in/e5AhdzWF 10 Design (part of 10N Collective & Egis)

Last week, the Boston Globe newspaper put aside a whole page to thank Scotland’s Tartan Army for visiting the city. “You came for the World Cup, but gave us something more.” The fans had turned “an ordinary June into something we’ll be talking about for years.” Similarly, when Cape Town hosted the World Cup in 2010, the true legacy was not physical infrastructure but social cohesion. The Guardian commented that if the tournament “had any significance beyond football, it was to show South Africa’s visitors – and, perhaps, the country itself – that it has no shortage of intelligent, capable, eager young people upon whom… a viable future can be built.” With social cohesion comes trust and confidence, and that’s exactly what Cape Town is now building on as it develops a case for hosting the Olympics in 2040. If it decides to bid and is successful in that, it will become the first African city to host the games. Perhaps not surprisingly, though, there is valid concern that bidding for the Olympics will divert investment and attention away from the deep economic, spatial, and racial inequalities in South African society. 10n Collective’s dhk Architects has been involved in Cape Town 2040, the thinktank set up to assess the city’s readiness for several years. Partner Guy Briggs advocates for much broader thinking around mega events, treating them as a mechanism for long-term social and economic regeneration. With sufficient lead-time, they can become a useful focus for effort and resources that may not otherwise have existed. The lasting success of the place is the prize, not the event itself. He also supports a growing trend for making use of what’s already there. The thinktank has identified that more than 80% of the venues needed for the Olympics are already in place; a learning mission to Paris 2024 inspired numerous strategies for making positive change both during and after the event. Perhaps it is this kind of change, rather than a few nights of joyous partying before the fans move on, that will keep South Africans talking about an Olympic summer for years to come. #SupportersofSoul WW+P Architects │ 10 Design │ FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects │ dhk Architects │ U+A │ Omrania 10n Collective, created by Egis

On Sunday, around 4,000 (now very happy) England fans arrived in Mexico City for the team’s last-16 World Cup match against the home nation. They were joined in the Estadio Azteca by almost 85,000 Mexico fans. Although the stadium – the largest in Latin America – is well-used to such huge crowds, it takes an exceptional infrastructure to deliver people safely to their seats – and an even more exceptional ‘event mode’ overlay to ensure the memory of the match stays with them for life. So how do we make sure that 30-day cities, dressed their best for major sporting events, become 15-day cities in legacy? For Ali Mowahed of 10N Collective’s WW+P Architects, it boils down to one word: adaptability. It’s about ensuring the infrastructure can accommodate huge movements of people on the big day, but giving the place a human scale that doesn’t feel vacuous in calmer periods. WW+P's legacy of work on infrastructure and transit-oriented developments shows the importance of spaces that are navigable, human, and extend out past the station itself to create a seamless passenger experience. It’s also about imaginative changes of use at every scale, from spectator areas that later house pop-up retail, through to stadia that, with games-mode seating removed, become the home for local teams. It’s also about taking advantage of the long lead times to an Olympic or World Cup event and using these as a focus for longer-term investment that may not otherwise be forthcoming without a hard deadline. It’s about careful planning and diligent design work, both before and after the event. Whoever wins at Mexico City, it’s the long-term place that’s the real prize. #SupportersofSoul WW+P Architects │ 10 Design │ FIA - Fenwick Iribarren Architects │ dhk Architects │ U+A │ Omrania 10n Collective, created by Egis

No. 10 has always gone to the player who changes how the game is played, the creative playmaker. We're in pretty good company 👀 10n Collective, created by Egis