2026 Archive : Leon Stadium Nicaragua

Project Details

Fabric 1

Frontside view 381 red
Producer/Manufacturer: Ferrari S.A.
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Fabric 2

Frontside view 381 white
Producer/Manufacturer: Ferrari S.A.
Primary Use: Secondary Fabric

Engineer Name 1
Angel Matus

Engineer Company 1
Dunn Lightweight LLC

Design Name
Horacio Lopez

Design Company
Dunn Lightweight LLC

Architect Name
Horacio Lopez

Architect Company
Dunn Lightweight LLC

Fabrication Name
Francisco Villasenor

Fabrication Company
Dunn Lightweight LLC

Project Manager Name
Andres villasenor

Project Manager Company
Dunn Lightweight LLC

Installation Name
Gustavo Marquez

Installation Company
Dunn Lightweight LLC

Please describe the project specifications

As baseball continues to grow as one of Nicaragua’s most important forms of recreation and community identity, new sports infrastructure is helping transform the way cities experience the game. In León, the challenge was to create a distinctive architectural identity for the new stadium—one that could become immediately associated with the Leones de León, while remaining efficient, economical, and clearly differentiated from other recently developed venues.

Our proposal transforms the stadium façade into a lightweight, three-dimensional membrane composition based on a repetitive diamond-shaped geometry. Rather than treating the envelope as a conventional cladding system, the design uses tensioned membrane surfaces to create depth, rhythm, and a strong visual presence with a minimal amount of material.

During the day, the folded geometry produces a continuous sequence of light and shadow, giving the stadium a sense of mass, texture, and structural strength. The façade appears almost sculptural, wrapping the grandstands in a recognizable architectural skin. At night, however, its character is completely transformed. The translucency of the membrane allows the interior lighting to pass through the envelope, visually dissolving its mass and turning the façade into a luminous, almost weightless layer around the stadium. The same membrane therefore performs as a solid architectural expression by day and as a transparent lantern by night.

Construction efficiency was fundamental to the concept. The façade was developed as a modular system of repetitive sections, allowing fabrication to be standardized and installation to follow a simple and highly organized sequence. This approach reduced complexity on site while preserving the visual richness of the overall composition—demonstrating how repetition, geometry, and tensile technology can produce architectural identity without unnecessary structural or economic complexity.

The result is more than a new façade. It gives the Leones de León a recognizable home and the city a contemporary landmark connected to the growing culture of baseball in Nicaragua. As the team begins a new chapter in its history, the stadium provides an architectural identity capable of evolving with it—a building that changes dramatically between day and night, yet remains unmistakably its own.

A lightweight membrane becomes both structure and symbol: robust in daylight, luminous after sunset, and a new architectural expression for baseball in León.

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