Design of Sports Facilities

Abstract

Stadia have always been dominated by striking architecture, attractive to both athletes and spectators. Stadium design spans almost three millennia, from the classical facilities of Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games, culminating in mega structures such as the Circus Maximus and the Coliseum in ancient Rome, to modern design wonders such as the Water Cube and the Bird’s Nest of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. Yet, even if architecture seems to be predominantly representing the symbolic and iconic character of a stadium, it is inherently connected to four key issues, embedded in the architectural planning phase: improving accessibility of remote outdoor sports, sustainable design, safety and the management and operation of sports facilities. Many outdoor sports disciplines are not easily accessible to the masses if the distancebetween urban areas and the remote natural outdoor places is unreasonable and time consuming.The classical example is swimming, accessible for people living close to slow-flowing rivers, lakes and coastal areas. The problem was solved as early as the times of ancient Greece and Rome, with public swimming centres (thermal baths) and private indoor and outdoor swimming pools.This principle remains unchanged in modern times, with the trend from outdoors to indoors, thus being independent of weather and temperature, and from remote wilderness to the city centre.Yet, the technical solutions offer more possibilities for replicating natural conditions and improving the accessibility of a wide range of sports disciplines.The associated facilities are numerous; to name just a few: indoor skiing facilities (‘snow cities’); indoor ice skating halls; indoor and outdoor sport (rock) climbing gyms; indoor ice-climbing gyms; outdoor driving ranges; outdoor sliding centres for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton; or outdoor white water parks. A major advantage of artificial sport facilities is the flexible and modular design, allowing a relatively quick and easy change of climbing routes and white water courses. Sustainable design arose as an issue only in the past few years,when organisers of large sport-ing events became more aware of costs, energy,waste and recycling.The Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, also termed the ‘Green Games’, set the gold standard for future games with sophisticated stadium design solutions. The Stadium Australia of 2000, renamed Telstra Stadium, is distinctly marked by a translu-cent and hyperbolic roof aerodynamically shaped and sloping down to the pitch, which savescosts of artificial lighting and improves the quality of grass, reduces aerodynamic drag, minimises heat loss from wind, provides protection to twice the number of spectators compared to cantilever roofs, collects rainwater for pitch irrigation and optimises acoustics (John et al. 2007). Further issues of environmentally friendly design include the following factors (John et al.