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3: Wembley Stadium, built in 2007

Rowan Moore introduces our interactive image of Wembley Stadium on cup final day, May 2011, taken as Manchester City celebrate their victory

● Explore the panoramic of Wembley Stadium
Wembley stadium panoramic
The Champions League final at Wembley Stadium on 28 May 2011. Photograph: Jim Powell for the Observer

The history of architecture is also the history of images of architecture, and one changes the other. Now, thanks to computer software which stitches together dozens of photographs taken from a single point at different angles, it is possible to communicate buildings in a new way. You are put in the middle of a space, and – using your computer mouse or dragging your iPad screen – you can look in any direction you choose: up, down, sideways, diagonally, in any direction in full 360 degree turn, in three dimensions. With these images, the rules change. You are immersed, not put at a distance, and the experience of being inside a space becomes more important than viewing a detached object. Interior counts more than exterior and a basic truth about architecture, that it is ultimately about making spaces not things, becomes apparent.

Architecture is a background, a setting, an instrument that enables other things to happen. This is particularly true of stadiums which, in use, are made by players and crowds. The famous Wembley arch was a deliberate attempt to make a modern version of the Twin Towers of the former stadium, and it works well enough as a landmark and logo, something to glimpse on the approaches to a match.

Once a game starts, action and reaction are everything, directed by the geometry of the pitch and sightlines. The Eiffel Tower could be floating overhead, and it would make no difference. This does not mean that design is irrelevant, but it is more about the reverberations of sound, the closeness of fans to the pitch, the angle of seating, than spectacular objects. Modern Wembley, by Foster and Partners and HOK Sport (now renamed Populous), has a bit of a flat-packed feel, unresonant, like a mid-range conference hotel, at least in its supporting spaces.

Once full, however, weight of numbers, plus its cauldron-like form, make it a powerful place.

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