As Tottenham announce detailed plans of their new 61,000 seater stadium – complete with its own beer brewery and “Tunnel Club” private members’ area (above), which will let you see the players through two-way glass – GQ spoke to Christopher Lee of designers Populous about taking inspiration from Germany, designing the roof like a concert hall, and how chairman Daniel Levy is so hands-on he’s spent hours with him looking at lifts.

1 Borussia Dortmund’s stadium was the inspiration for the 17,000 single tier south stand

“The single tier came in quite early, we were very focused on this idea of referencing and what we thought made great old stadiums and I think Dortmund’s is fantastic. If you’ve ever been to a game at Dortmund it’s incredible - just seeing the stand full of yellow is phenomenal. The atmosphere was really important for us, so the idea of the single tier really drove the idea of that atmosphere. We went to Dortmund, we’ve been to the Kop [at Liverpool's Anfield stadium], we’ve been to lots of single tiers to design an incredible single tier, 17,000. It’s going to be awesome.”

2 Despite being a bowl stadium, they’ve kept the feel of separate stands

“If there was any great fear from us it was not to create a generic stadium. We all wanted to create something that had personality, its own identity, its own nuances. We spent a lot of time thinking about the stadiums we all loved and why we loved them, what makes White Hart Lane special. Proximity to the pitch is incredibly important for that, noise is incredibly important, but also having an identity about where you sit. I think if modern stadiums, or some modern stadiums have a justified criticism is that you end up with this extruded seating bowl, and once you’re in there you never know where you are – whether you’re in the north, the south, the east or the west. Do you have an identity? Are there a bunch of people around you who come week in week out? So to create a bowl with atmosphere and personality was important.”

3 Acoustically, it’s been designed like a concert hall

“We worked with a company called Vanguardia, who bring in acousticians, guys who are sound engineers. Atmosphere is made up of a bunch of things – a bit of science and a bit of art. One of the really important things we spent a lot of time with them on, and part of the driver for the [17,00 single tier, the largest of its type in the UK] south stand was about creating more clean reverberation times so songs last longer. The studies we’ve done with them shows when you start breaking up acoustics everyone gets out of sync, singing 'C’mon you Spurs' or whatever the song is, and so they stop singing. So once they create acoustics where they don’t break down, the reverberation times are quicker, they last longer, they get louder, and the louder people get, the louder people around them get, and so the atmosphere and the noise builds.”

4 ... in everything from the roof to the seats

“It’s about the material the roof’s made of, the shape of the roof, where it inclines and where it doesn’t. We’re lining the underside of the roof with an aluminium soffit lining and it ends up working a bit like a concert hall, so we have sections where we’re adding more absorption where we need it so we have perforated bits with acoustic lining. I mean, it really has been considered much like a concert hall's acoustics would be considered, in order to get this incredible clarity of the acoustics within the seating bowl. The level it’s been taken to is unique. I don’t think we’ve ever done the amount of studies, the amount of work, the discussion of materials – where absorption is, where it isn’t – even how much padding do we have in the seats, where do we have that padding in the seats, which also deals with acoustics.”

5 It’ll have as many food options as American sports stadiums (i.e. a lot)

“We’re developing a huge food court in the south stand which will bring food trucks and street food in, we’re looking at being able to brew our own craft beer on site, so you get these incredible options. I think as a football fan if you come 30 times a year, it’s a lot of games to go to and eat same thing. I think it’s a failing of English football, as opposed to I think American sports. What we wanted was options that you can do so you can say, 'I’m going to have a meal' or 'I’m going to go and drink beer with my mates' or 'I’m bringing my girlfriend this week, I’m bringing my mother next week'. It’s very easy to say ok so he sits there, he comes in this gate, he goes to that seat and that makes the design simple. But when you’re saying ok, you can come in that gate or you can come in that gate then you’re allowed to go round to this area or you want to go up to a bar up there, those complexities of movement were quite challenging to design a stadium with that sort of free flow.”

6 Chairman Daniel Levy has been micro-managing everything… including the lifts

“Daniel’s got quite a reputation as being a hard negotiator and everything, but I found him really enjoyable to work with. He’s incredibly detail focused. Two weeks ago, we spent six hours looking at the insides of lifts. And I don’t mean the cars, the mechanisms. We went up the Cheese Grater [Leadenhall Building] and he spent three hours talking to one of the Richard Rogers guys who designed the lifts there, with him saying, 'So what about those counter weights? How can we change those?' I mean how many chairmen do that? He’s the kind of client who continues to push you, saying is that good enough? Can we do better? And he’s not afraid to change things. We changed an entire façade of the building post-planning. He spends so much time thinking about it, working with you. I mean, I’ll meet Daniel three times a week, I’ll get a dozen emails from him a day saying, 'Have you seen this, look at this, what about this?' He’s always trying to make it better.”

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