infraDIVINE

Ziggurats

Ziggurats is an ongoing body of site-based investigations into stadiums as monumental civic architectures of ascent, ritual, devotion, memory, identity, and return.

The title does not claim that contemporary stadiums reproduce ancient ziggurats. It names the vertical, processional, collective, and reverential conditions that become perceptible through sustained encounter.

Each site is approached through walking, direct observation, drawing in situ, recollection, reconstruction, and return. The stadium is studied as infrastructure, image, container of collective memory, and material witness to the relationship between a team and its community.

Vera L. Melo inside Estadio Monumental. The stadium bowl and mountains are visible behind her figure.
Estadio Monumental · Lima, Peru · Fieldwork
Fieldwork at Estadio Monumental. Drawing board in the foreground, stadium visible behind.
Drawing board · Estadio Monumental · Lima, Peru
Vera L. Melo drawing inside Alianza Lima stadium. Seating and stadium context visible.
Drawing · Estadio Alejandro Villanueva · Lima, Peru
Alianza Lima stadium fieldwork. Drawing in the foreground near the bench and field area.
Fieldwork · Estadio Alejandro Villanueva · Lima, Peru

Projects

Diego’s ZigguratDiego Armando Maradona Stadium · Naples, Italy · 2026

Further projects in preparation