{"303751":{"#nid":"303751","#data":{"type":"news","title":"World Cup 2014: Flowers Watches with Eye on Infrastructure","body":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EWorld Cup fever has hit worldwide, and Georgia Tech is not immune.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs the international sporting event kicked off amid controversy in Brazil last week, members of the Tech community watched through their own lenses of experience.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.arch.gatech.edu\/people\/benjamin-flowers\u0022\u003EBenjamin Flowers\u003C\/a\u003E, an associate professor in the College of Architecture who studies stadiums, followed the lead-up to the World Cup with an eye on infrastructure. Stadium construction for the event was routinely delayed and over budget. Brazilians protested the billions in public funds that went into construction, when the profits of the event will largely leave with FIFA, the World Cup organizer.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThese stadiums might be architecturally interesting and operate well, but they\u2019re being built in places where there is no subsequent demand for a project of that size,\u201d Flowers said, citing the Manaus stadium as one example. Manaus, a remote Amazonian town where construction materials had to be transported by boat, will host four World Cup matches, including the U.S. face-off against Portugal on Sunday. After that, there\u2019s no planned use for the $275 million structure. Twelve stadiums have been built in Brazil for the event.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cThe cost of these projects has exploded so dramatically in the last two decades,\u201d Flowers said. \u201cIt\u2019s a tragedy in some ways that, as interesting as these projects might be, they\u2019re linked to an event that\u2019s so ethically questionable, it\u2019s hard to separate the architecture from the surrounding social context.\u201d\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAt the same time, this is why Flowers loves his area of study.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cStadiums bring together so many powerful forces in society in the construction of these projects that it sometimes forces you to face uncomfortable questions,\u201d he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAn emerging idea is to construct stadiums for mega-events that can either be disassembled and removed, or scaled down to better suit the needs of a community after the crowds disperse.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EStill, even if mildly jaded, Flowers looks forward to watching the World Cup.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u201cIt\u2019s still something that brings together people from all over the world, and it\u2019s hard not to have an emotional response to that,\u201d he said, adding that he always cheers for places he\u2019s lived, which include Costa Rica, Honduras, Guatemala, Bulgaria, Romania, and the U.S.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe Student Center is hosting viewing parties in Tech Rec for nearly all matches, including deals for bowling, billiards and gaming for some events. A full list of events is \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/studentcenter.gatech.edu\/rec\/Documents\/World.Cup.2014.Schedule.pdf\u0022\u003Eavailable online\u003C\/a\u003E.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E","summary":null,"format":"limited_html"}],"field_subtitle":"","field_summary":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003EBenjamin Flowers studies stadiums and discusses his thoughts on construction and the World Cup in Brazil.\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"field_summary_sentence":[{"value":"Benjamin Flowers studies stadiums and discusses his thoughts on construction and the World Cup in Brazil."}],"uid":"27469","created_gmt":"2014-06-18 10:20:24","changed_gmt":"2016-10-08 03:16:37","author":"Kristen Bailey","boilerplate_text":"","field_publication":"","field_article_url":"","dateline":{"date":"2014-06-18T00:00:00-04:00","iso_date":"2014-06-18T00:00:00-04:00","tz":"America\/New_York"},"extras":[],"hg_media":{"303761":{"id":"303761","type":"image","title":"2014 World Cup","body":null,"created":"1449244609","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:56:49","changed":"1475895009","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:50:09","alt":"2014 World Cup","file":{"fid":"199629","name":"2014-world-cup-logo.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2014-world-cup-logo_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/2014-world-cup-logo_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":35286,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/2014-world-cup-logo_0.jpg?itok=eFA3W_KA"}},"239621":{"id":"239621","type":"image","title":"Benjamin Flowers","body":null,"created":"1449243670","gmt_created":"2015-12-04 15:41:10","changed":"1475894914","gmt_changed":"2016-10-08 02:48:34","alt":"Benjamin Flowers","file":{"fid":"197747","name":"bf3-bw.jpg","image_path":"\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bf3-bw_0.jpg","image_full_path":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/\/sites\/default\/files\/images\/bf3-bw_0.jpg","mime":"image\/jpeg","size":2254704,"path_740":"http:\/\/tlwarc.hg.gatech.edu\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/740xx_scale\/public\/images\/bf3-bw_0.jpg?itok=-HK_DvNt"}}},"media_ids":["303761","239621"],"related_links":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.hts.gatech.edu\/sports","title":"Sports, Society, and Technology Program"},{"url":"http:\/\/coa.gatech.edu\/","title":"Georgia Tech College of Architecture"},{"url":"http:\/\/www.fifa.com\/","title":"FIFA"}],"groups":[{"id":"1221","name":"College of Design"}],"categories":[{"id":"129","name":"Institute and Campus"}],"keywords":[{"id":"9792","name":"benjamin flowers"},{"id":"167196","name":"sport society and technology"},{"id":"9851","name":"world cup"}],"core_research_areas":[],"news_room_topics":[{"id":"71871","name":"Campus and Community"}],"event_categories":[],"invited_audience":[],"affiliations":[],"classification":[],"areas_of_expertise":[],"news_and_recent_appearances":[],"phone":[],"contact":[{"value":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\u0022mailto:kristen.bailey@comm.gatech.edu\u0022\u003EKristen Bailey\u003C\/a\u003E\u003Cbr \/\u003EInstitute Communications\u003C\/p\u003E","format":"limited_html"}],"email":[],"slides":[],"orientation":[],"userdata":""}}}