Voted the Most Beautiful Sports Facility in the World in the Prix Versailles 2019 international architecture awards, Optus Stadium is owned by the Western Australian State Government and operated by VenuesLive.
Over 100 contracts were used in the construction of the venue which began in December 2013, with the Stadium officially opening on Sunday 21 January 2018.
Optus Stadium has transformed the way fans experience major sport and entertainment events and in doing so has become an Australian national icon in a short space of time.
The multi-purpose, 60,000-seater, outshone New York City’s Louis Armstrong Stadium and China’s Hangzhou Sports Park Stadium to claim the World title.
Every design decision was made with a singular vision; To achieve an unsurpassed visitor experience.
WIND ENGINEERING
CPP Wind Engineering and Air Consultants was invited to participate in the Perth Stadium project at the concept design stage.
Dr. Matt Glanville of CPP Wind Engineering in Sydney said it was amongst the largest stadium projects CPP has worked on, with a brief covering many different aspects of wind engineering.
“We provided scope to investigate structural aspects of the wind design, particularly the roof, which needs to withstand 1000-year return period wind loads. It’s a lightweight fabric roof,” Dr Glanville said.
LIGHTWEIGHT FABRIC ROOF
“We provided scope to investigate structural aspects of the wind design, particularly the roof, which needs to withstand 1000-year return period wind loads. It’s a lightweight fabric roof,” Dr Glanville said.
Without wind tunnel testing it is almost impossible to forecast the magnitude of ‘hotspots’ (localised peak wind pressure areas) on a building surface induced by highly turbulent peak wind gusts that a designer may not intuitively locate.
The wind tunnel blows air in a straight direction towards the Optus Stadium model. Using a circular turntable which can rotate 360 degrees, it can replicate the full-scale wind environment for each wind direction, on a model scale, for this Perth site location.
It is now common to find wind engineers seated on expert panels of design professionals to assess competitive designs for state–significant developments.
“People now realise the importance of wind engineering in building and structural design,” Dr Glanville said. “We are most effective at the front end of design. The reason we do wind tunnel testing and have been commercially for the last 50+ years is because the tunnel can reproduce scaled turbulence important for measuring peak gust wind speeds and design pressures on buildings.”
CPP also investigated wind driven rain penetration into the stadium and carried out studies to optimise the size of the open roof/façade gap.
CPP is pleased to have played a role in delivering critical recommendations and development of Optus Stadium, one the of the world’s most iconic sports facilities.
Read more about the construction of Optus Stadium and CPP’s role in The Builders Choice Magazine, March 2020 edition.
A previous article was also published in the September 2019 edition of The Builders Choice Magazine.