2024 LSAA Design Awards Entry #3865 Sydney Football Stadium Roof

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The Sydney Football Stadium Roof, completed in 2022, has joined the growing list of major international iconic stadiums featuring lightweight tensile membrane roofing. Right from the start of the design phase, the project brief emphasised the integration of key stadium elements – the Stadium Domain, Seating Bowl, Façade, and Roof – into a cohesive architectural language.

The highly visible 26,000 square metre tensile membrane roof uses Chukoh Skytop FGT800 PTFE as the primary cladding element. The lightweight PTFE membrane provides exceptional durability and strength, ensuring a 50+ year lifespan with minimal maintenance.

After a slow start in the series where Australia lost its first two matches our team started to get its act together.

There were some incredible individual performances such as the batting innings by by Glenn Maxwell that inspired the team to believe they could win from any dire position.

Well done team and to Travis Head for a superb knock in the final following brilliant display of fielding - including Head's remarkable outfield catch.

A collection of excellent pictures of the final match played on November 19 2023 is assembled by The Guardian - See HERE

The final was played in the recently completed Narendra Modi Stadium - the largest cricket stadium in the world.

A good account of the history of the stadium can be found on Wikipedia HERE

The stadium belongs to the Gujarat Cricket Association and the two pictures in this article are credit to a gallery on their site HERE

The roof of the stadium is a true Lightweight Structure and is based on a complete horizontal "bicycle wheel" concept with an outer planar compression ring (or rim of a wheel) and an inner tension open ring or hub. The redeveloped stadium was designed by the architectural firm Populus. The LSAA has been fortunate to have Populus deliver some keynote addresses at some of our conferences.

Between the two are radial cables of alternating shapes. Every other radial cable has a peak formed by a pickup cable running out to the higher outer compression ring. We might call this a "ridge cable". The radial cables between these ridge cables are "valley cables". Between the radial cables is tensioned fabric panels giving a very clean underside to the roof.

The new 42,500 seat Allianz Stadium in Sydney was officially opened on August 28 2022.

Cox Architects were the Architects on this and the original stadium. John Holland were the builders.

The Media release can be viewed at https://www.allianzstadium.com.au/articles/allianz_stadium_official_open

Some other links are:

Wikipedia Article which describes the contractual story in some detail: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Football_Stadium_%282022%29

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YphXYWufXuM

Channel 7 News Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJoX0u5uQ3M

 Article in The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2022/aug/30/after-all-the-grandstanding-a-sparkling-new-stadium-leaves-sydneys-same-problems-unresolved

More details later. (Aug 30 2022)

CommBank Stadium Description

CommBank Stadium (formerly Bankwest Stadium) is a 30,000-seat stadium in Parramatta, NSW Australia. The large 28,500m² regional stadium is an initiative backed by the NSW Government to create an entertainment venue that was “made for the fans”.

Fabritecture’s scope was the design & construction of the impressive lightweight fabric structure roof utilizing a combination of Chukoh FGT-800 PTFE to provide shade to patrons and 300µm clear ETFE film eyelid roof to support pitch growth by allowing UV and natural light to pass through the membrane.

A large focus of the grandstand design was to bring patrons as close as possible to the field, creating a truly spectacular experience for all sports fans.

Several recent stadia roofs have employed the structural concept broadly described as a bicycle wheel.

In this concept there is the outer rim, or compression ring supported at regular intervals around the circular or near circular grandstand.

Radial elements span into a central hub - like the spokes of a wheel joining onto the axle hub. Schlaich Bergermann Partner are considered pioneers in using this concept - such as for the stadium in Kuala Lumpur.

Entrant:  Tensys Engineers Pty Ltd

• Location:  Doha, Qatar
• Client:  Lakhwiya Sports Club
• Completion Date:  February 2013

This project was entered in the 2013 LSAA Design Awards (Cat 4, #6515)

The development is to create a new stadium for the local Qatar League team ‘Lakhwiya’. The works involve creating a 15,000 seat stadium with 4 grand stand sun shading roofs.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

Lakhwiya Football Club is local league champions in 2012 and 2013. The development is to create a new home stadium for this team. Al Khayyat Development were provided with the brief to carry out a design and build facilities for (not only) the stadium but associated facilities of car parking, gymnasium and ancillary buildings

Congratulations to India for winning the first test of the 2018 summer season. Next is to start later this week in the brand new 60,000 seat Optus Stadium in Perth. Best wishes to both teams. The Optus stadium roof structure had considerable input from two of our LSAA Members - Arups and MakMax.

More details of this project can be found HERE

The Adelaide Oval is a world class cricket facility that was the focus of a $535 million redevelopment completed in 2014.

The first Test of the 2018-19 season between India and Australia was played at the Adelaide Oval. Congratulations to India for the win but it does seem as though the Aussies have a bit of fight in them. Onto the new stadium in Perth!

Various LSAA Members have been involved in the new roof structures at Adelaide. See this article for example.

Photo Credits: Peter Kneen

Project entered in the LSAA 2018 Design Awards (Cat 5, 5085)

APPLICATION OF PROJECT:

Façade Structure

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

To create a lightweight façade structure for Jakarta Velodrome – extending the designs and concept developed with Cox Architecture for the Queensland State Velodrome for Indonesia.

A video of the completed project may be seen at this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUPJvJ4xCtA

LSAA 2018 Design Awards HIGH COMMENDATION - Category 6 Collaboration (6431)

Application: Mixed fabric PTFE and EPTFE Tensile Membrane Roof over the 60,000 seat Perth Optus Stadium.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION:

The crowning cap of the New Perth Stadium is the “halo” roof that appears to float above the main seating bowl and façade. The use of architectural membrane materials created an ultra lightweight roof, enabling a lightweight steel frame to be constructed that compliments the minimal form of the roof.

The roof structure is a continuous fabric roof free from movement joints and integrated with lighting, PA and other systems. The translucent roof was enhanced by the use of 2 fabrics – a PTFE and an EPTFE fabric – with contrasting light transmissions creating a visually exciting texture to the Halo internally.