Sports complexes including athletics, swiming, cycling, gymnastics, tennis, basketball, hockey and other large enclosures.

These structures will often involve tensioned membrane roof panels, large span trusses, arches, cablenets or other forms of lightweight structures.

The following articles are in random order:

This project was entered in the LSAA 2011 Design Awards (Cat 4, 4002)

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

The Carrara Stadium was originally built in the late 1980’s and played host to a number of events however the venue has traditionally been a football ground. The decision to redevelop the site came as a welcome change to many sporting fans. The redevelopment is also in line with the Queensland government’s bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

The newly named and revamped Metricon Stadium is built to accommodate a Australian Rules football oval, world standard cricket oval, provision to allow future installation of an athletics field and international standard soccer field including all the associated corporate, media and player facilities. The Queensland Government funded project secures a future for sport of all kinds in the region, opens the possibility to world class soccer coming to the region as well as other major national and international sporting events.

Structural Design of the Arch and Roof of Wembley Stadium

Kourosh Kayvani, PhD, FIEAust, CPEng
Aurecon, Sydney, Australia

ROOF DESCRIPTION

The aim of the new Wembley Stadium was to design and build a state-of-the-art national stadium, unlike any other in the world. The new stadium, with its elegant exposed steel structure arch, is an international icon as was the old stadium with its twin towers which was built in 1923.

The design brief required the roof not to cover the playing field which lead to one unique aspect of the roof in that it partially retracts over the seats to allow the daylight to reach all points of the pitch and thus a shadow-free playing field.

The retractable roof is formed by seven separate independently driven roof panels totalling 15,000 sqm that move in a parallel motion to the south as they "open" and stack on the top of one another when in a fully "open" position.

With the retracting roof panels all moving to the south, the roof design exploits the opportunity to have a tall, structurally efficient structure on the north side to support the north and south roofs. The solution was to have an elegant and structurally efficient arch which spans the entire width of the stadium's seating bowl (Figure 1).

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Entered in the LSAA 2011 Design Awards (Cat 4, 4003)

This project was ambitious from the beginning; a large scale elevated cover over three grandstand seating structures presented a few structural challenges.

The purpose as with many tensile membrane projects was a combination of shade and weather cover. Each seating section required these basic needs met while maintaining a uniform style and aesthetic appeal through out. Our client, The Tamil Nadu Cricket Association, requested minimal connections to the supporting grandstand structure, leaving more space beneath for spectator seating.

The project was designed to create a unique feature to the venue. Often large scale tension membrane roofing contribute a large amount to the look and feel of a venue, it’s a prominent feature and one that needs to be eye-catching and unique.