Changing the game: Meet Jochen Ristig
Jochen is one of the creative minds that’s shaping enduring stadium design. He’s been at the helm of iconic projects like Melbourne’s AAMI Park, Munich’s Allianz Arena and most recently, Hobart’s Macquarie Point Stadium. While the venue may change, his focus remains; fan experience, flexibility and long-term value through thoughtful, integrated design.
You’ve worked on major sports venues globally. What lessons from these projects do you bring to new developments?
Each new venue raises the bar in terms of design ambition, technology integration and user expectations. Allianz Arena was groundbreaking in the use of ETFE in its façade, which not only gives it its iconic visual identity but makes it highly durable. AAMI Park, with its lighter yet complex roof, pushed the boundaries on structural analysis and optimisation.
These experiences have shaped our approach to projects like Macquarie Point Stadium, where we’ve combined lessons from innovations on past projects with cutting-edge tools to understand occupant comfort and pitch performance and test different stadium forms until we find the best based on structure, performance, cost and aesthetic. The focus is always on elevating the fan experience, embedding flexibility for future uses, and ensuring the venue can adapt to evolving event formats and technologies.
How do you ensure stadium designs cater to both spectators and athletes?
Over a typical 3–4-year design and construction process, technology and user expectations evolve significantly. The design needs to anticipate how future technologies may impact the built form and how spectators experience the venue.
At Macquarie Point Stadium, we placed significant emphasis on comfort modelling to ensure all public areas are welcoming all year-round. This caters to interstate travellers who expect a similar fan experience to what they are offered in their home city. Our design prioritised intuitive circulation, quick egress, universal access and proximity to food and beverage, all within a distinctive architectural setting. For athletes, we designed high-performance environments: generous change facilities with dedicated physio/strapping area, aqua recovery, optimal playing surfaces, airflow and temperature control, and secure, efficient arrival and departure routes.
Increasingly, venues are designed to foster closer interaction between fans and athletes, with premium experiences, such as field club lounges, and pitch-side access. Event overlay flexibility is also critical to support a wide range of uses beyond sport.
How do you maximise value while balancing functionality, sustainability and long-term operational costs?
Technology has transformed how we design. We can test and iterate far more options than ever before, allowing us to optimise for performance, cost and sustainability.
A multidisciplinary, integrated design approach is best, bringing together architecture, engineering and specialist disciplines under strong design leadership. This is the right approach for coordination across technical disciplines and delivers the best project outcomes.
At Macquarie Point Stadium, sustainability was embedded into the design from the start. We assessed embodied carbon across design options, giving the client clear visibility into the environmental and financial impacts of every decision. Passive design strategies and efficient spatial planning also help reduce the venue’s long-term operational costs. A venue’s unique architectural identity and adaptability can drive long-term value by attracting more events. A durable, future-proof design reduces maintenance costs.
How do you design sports and entertainment venues to serve their communities well beyond the initial investment?
Flexibility is key. Venues must be able to evolve to suit different event types, audience sizes and community needs. Equal access is a non-negotiable. Everyone, regardless of mobility and ability, deserves an unforgettable fan experience.
We also activate the venue’s perimeter to create a vibrant precinct, even on non-event days, integrating retail, hospitality and community spaces for year-round entertainment, quality of life benefits and economic value for vendors and the city. Holistic precinct planning ensures the venue is embedded in its urban context, with strong connections to public and active transport routes, and other commonly frequented, surrounding public spaces. Function spaces are designed for versatility, supporting everything from grassroots sport to major events.
At Macquarie Point Stadium and its surrounding precinct, features like The Goods Shed (historically used for railway operations and redeveloped into a hub for a range of entertainment events), the signature roof design, and proximity to the CBD help create a unique identity, sense of place and connection to other spaces.
What excites you most about future sports and entertainment infrastructure in Australia?
Australia’s approach to sports infrastructure is unique. Unlike international markets, where venues are driven by franchise success, many Australian venues are publicly funded and deeply connected to their communities. The MCG is a great example: iconic not just for one team, but as a shared cultural landmark. This shapes how we design, focusing on inclusivity, affordability and broad appeal. Australia’s strong sporting culture that permeates across all cities, regions and towns means there’s ongoing demand for high-quality venues that meet modern fan expectations, even outside of major cities.
Events like the 2032 Brisbane Olympic and Paralympic Games will catalyse a new wave of investment, not just in Brisbane, but across the country. This presents a tremendous opportunity to renew our national infrastructure and attract global entertainment acts. It’s an exciting time to design venues that are accessible, functional and culturally significant.
Describe the feeling you get when you sit in a stadium you’ve designed, as a fan.
When I am in a venue I designed, I initially can’t stop myself from ‘inspecting’ some of the key details that took time and thinking to resolve. But after some time, I settle and enjoy the event and experience of the space. The memories of the design and the construction process often remain vivid.
It’s rewarding to see something that I spent years imagining come to life. Observing how large crowds share experiences and enjoy the space in the way it was anticipated brings me joy and pride.