The Roig Arena of Valencia
The new Roig Arena in Valencia is already a benchmark multi-purpose venue in terms of scale, technology and project management. Opened in September 2025, it is the home of Valencia Basket and operates with a capacity of 15,600 people for basketball and up to 20,000 for concerts, figures that place it among the largest indoor venues in the country.
Licampa 1617, Juan Roig’s property company, has promoted this project, carried out by ERRE Arquitectura, with the aim of promoting and encouraging the practice of sport in general, and basketball in particular.
Roig Arena is the first sports project with a fully ceramic skin. A total of 8,600 ceramic fins, manufactured locally by Pamesa Grupo Empresarial, are arranged like scales floating on a curved steel frame.
At night, the façade glows with coloured lighting. A full-scale 1:1 prototype of the façade system was constructed prior to installation, demonstrating its constructability. The design team opted to use a single modular piece measuring 1.00 x 1.20 metres. Standardising the size of the fins simplified installation, reduced waste and lowered the project’s carbon footprint. Parametric modelling defined the location of each element, with angles ranging from 10 to 63 degrees.
During the day, the fins, designed with a texture inspired by the surface of a basketball and finished in three subtle shades of blue enamel, filter natural light onto the outdoor terraces.
At night, the façade reveals its full potential as a dynamic LED video lighting system with RGB-White technology, capable of interacting with real-time data to create a spectacular light show.
Beneath the ceramic skin, engineering provides the solution for the large unsupported span: eight prefabricated 123-metre trusses span the roof and free up the interior space. The enclosure package incorporates one metre of insulation with acoustic reinforcement, and the passive strategy—overhangs, shaded terraces, orientation—reduces thermal loads. On the roof, 1,742 photovoltaic panels provide renewable energy, and the water system relies on an underground cistern and green areas in ‘basins’ to manage heavy rainfall.
