According to The Architect's Newspaper, plans for a soccer stadium in Gloucestershire, England that will be constructed entirely from wood have been approved after years of delay. The design for what will be Eco Park Stadium, the future home of the Forest Green Rovers F.C., comes from Zaha Hadid Architects. It will be the first all-wood soccer stadium in the world. The plans were disapproved in June due to noise, traffic, and impact on the environment. Alterations were made including a revised landscape strategy and an improved match-day transport plan.
The 5,000-seat stadium is the world’s first UN-certified, carbon-neutral football club and almost every element is made of sustainably sourced timber which, in the firm’s words, “is highly durable, safe, recyclable, and beautiful.” In a recent press release, ZHA even mentioned the aspiration of the stadium being carbon negative “with the provision of on-site renewable energy generation.”
The club itself will provide every seat with unrestricted sightlines and fans will be as close as 16 feet from the pitch. One of the recent modifications in the application was a swap for one grass pitch to an all-weather pitch that has access to local clubs. The design anticipates the club’s future growth.
The chair of the club and owner of green energy firm Ecotricity, Dale Vince, told The Architects’ Journal: “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 it’s why our new stadium will have the lowest carbon content of any stadium in the world.”
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