News: London firm Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has unveiled designs for a major new football stadium in Caracas, Venezuela.

The Estadio Nacional de Fútbol de Venezuela will be the first football stadium designed by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners.

Developed in collaboration with engineers Arup and Schlaich Bergermann und Partner, it will feature a brightly coloured circular roof that the architects refer to as a "bicycle wheel canopy".

The building will be located at the top of a hill, overlooking the city centre to the north east.

"The hillside site created an unusual challenge and the design reflects this with terraces cut into the landscape giving way to a series of floating esplanades that provide access to the various levels of stadium," said Simon Smithson, the lead architect on the project.

The stadium forms part of a wider masterplan by Richard Rogers' firm for the area known as La Rinconada, located approximately eight kilometres south west of the capital.

The architects had originally been commissioned to design a bus station replacing an existing facility, but the project later evolved to encompass a new transport interchange between the bus station and the existing metro and train station, as well as the establishment of a metropolitan park to protect the surrounding hillsides from further development.

The football stadium will be located within the park alongside a new baseball stadium, while an existing racecourse designed by Californian architect Arthur Froehlich in the 1950s will be retained.