Rendering by Zaha Hadid Architects
London-based Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) have won the Forest Green Rovers international competition to build the world’s first timber football stadium.
“The importance of wood is not only that it’s naturally occurring, it has very low embodied carbon – about as low as it gets for a building material,” Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder and Forest Green Rovers chairman said.
“And when you bear in mind that around three quarters of the lifetime carbon impact of any stadium comes from its building materials, you can see why that’s so important – and why our new stadium will have the lowest embodied carbon of any stadium in the world.”
The stadium will be the centerpiece of the £100 million Eco Park development near Stroud, England. The design will consist of almost every element made of sustainably sourced timber including its structure, roof cantilevers and louvered cladding.
Rendering by Zaha Hadid Architects
Rendering by Zaha Hadid Architects
The proximity of the stadium’s structural elements to each other has also been determined to enable seating terraces and floor slab to be made from timber.
“The stadium’s roof is covered with a transparent membrane which contributes to turg growth, minimizes stark shadows for players and fans and reduces the volumetric impact of the stadium from distant views in the surrounding landscape, ” said Jim Heverin, director at ZHA.
Rendering by Zaha Hadid Architects
Zaha Hadid Architects was also the architect firm behind the stadium for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar and the London Aquatics Centre.
Rendering by Zaha Hadid Architects
Source: Zaha Hadid Architects
