zaha hadid architects to build wooden football stadium

zaha hadid architects has been selected to complete a new stadium for english football club forest green rovers. to be constructed near the gloucestershire market town of stroud, the arena will form the centerpiece of the £100 million ‘eco park’ development — a proposed 100 acre sports and green technology business park.

image by negativ (main image by mir)

for the stadium, zaha hadid architects has conceived a pioneering design made almost entirely from wood. the scheme sits low on the terrain, intended to complement the existing meadow landscape. the venue’s roof is covered with a transparent membrane, which helps turf to grow naturally. importantly, the arena has been designed to allow for future expansion — constructed initially for 5,000 spectators, the stadium could potentially double in size depending on the club’s success.

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half of the overall ‘eco park’ development will offer of state-of-the-art sporting facilities, including the stadium, while the remaining 50% will comprise a green technology business park with sustainably-built commercial offices and light industrial units. the site will also provide space for the continued expansion of energy company ecotricity, whose founder, dale vince, is also the chairman of forest green rovers. the proposal also includes the development of a nature reserve and a potential public transport hub.

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‘as a building material, timber is highly durable, recyclable and beautiful,’ explains jim heverin, director at ZHA. ‘the proximity of the stadium’s structural elements to each other has also been determined to enable the seating terraces and floor slab to be made from timber. in most other stadiums, these elements are concrete or steel. with the team’s community and supporters at its core, fans will be as close as five meters from the pitch and the position of every seat has been calculated to provide excellent, unrestricted views of the entire field of play. the stadium’s continuous spectator bowl surrounding the pitch will maximize matchday atmosphere.’

image by mir

the seven month-long competition, initiated by forest green rovers in march 2016, attracted more than 50 entries from around the world. two months later, nine candidates were shortlisted, before the field was narrowed to leave just zaha hadid architects and eventual runners-up glenn howells architects in the running. ‘glenn howells also produced an exceptional design – and they impressed us as much as their design did actually,’ adds vince. ‘as a result, we’re going to work with them on some future projects.’

project info:

name: ecopark stadium
location: gloucestershire, UK
architect: zaha hadid architects (ZHA)
design: zaha hadid with patrik schumacher
ZHA director: jim heverin
ZHA project director: sara klomps
ZHA design team: karthikeyan arunachalam, sara akbari, muriel boselli, avery chen, saman dadgostar, cynthia du, paulo flores, fabian hecker, jakub klaska, vincent konaté, igor pantic, edgar payan, sven torres, theodor wender, richard wasenegger