How We Did IT

18 November 2005

This is Arup Sport’s latest design for a state-of-the-art, 50,000-capacity football stadium in Donetsk, Ukraine. The stadium, for FC Shakhtar, is distinctive for its sloping roof and upper tier, which minimises the building’s impact on the surrounding parkland and maximises the amount of sunlight reaching the pitch.

Conceived through a combination of parametric tools — Catia for the roof and Microstation’s Generative Components for the bowl — the design has progressed through some fundamental design changes extremely quickly. Originally, Arup Sport director J Parrish drew up about 30 variations of the stadium from which the client could choose.

However, well into the detail design phase, the client suddenly asked what difference it would make to the design and cost if the rake of the seating changed. The beauty of parametric design tools is that a request such as this can be accommodated relatively easily. Parrish and his team remodelled the entire stadium within a couple of days. The image (below right) shows the different seating patterns the client was presented with. It has yet to make a final decision. The stadium is scheduled for completion in 2007.

Parrish is taking part in an advanced modelling workshop organised by Smartgeometry, the education and research organisation sponsored by Microstation developer Bentley. The event, takes place in Cambridge on January 28-31. Other tutors will include: Hugh Whitehead, Foster’s; Lars Hesselgren, KPF; Judit Kimpian, Aedas; and Robert Aish, Bentley.

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