Gender-neutral toilets, bubble tube lamps and pram storage: a new era of stadium design?

Adjustable capacities to fit the women and youth team fixtures, pram storage, retractable pitches and drawing walls for kids. 

These are just some of the concepts designed by Populous — the global architectural firm that designed the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The ambition: to create more inclusive venues.

Football stadiums have always been designed through a male-centric lens, with the belief being that male fans would dominate the stands and terraces. Little thought was given to the specific needs of female fans and families.

However, the fan landscape has changed rapidly. If you were lucky enough to get a ticket for the Women’s European Championship in the summer of last year or for the recent Finalissima between the Lionesses and Brazil, you would have found yourself on Wembley Way surrounded by a very different crowd to the one envisioned by previous stadium designers.

You would have seen young children, toddlers, grassroots teams, fans who had lived through parts of the FA women’s football ban (running from 1921 to 1971), couples and mixed groups of friends. Essentially, you would have seen the new age of football fans. But as the makeup of supporters…