The Estádio Maracanã belongs to one of the most famous football stadiums in the world. To meet the requirements for the participation in the 2014 FIFA World Cup the existing stadium was modernized. Because of its historic and cultural value it was seen as the ultimate objective to treat the building with due respect during the design process. To maintain the appearance of the original stadium the roof structure was to be kept low at the inner and outer rim, and the shaped roof was meant to be floating just above the stadium bowl. The scheme is based on the design principle of a spoked wheel with just one compression ring and three tension rings in total. The old cantilever roof was replaced by a new larger roof that rests on the existing building supports. The entire roof is now covered with a PTFE coated fibreglass membrane and the stands were rebuilt.
