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First football stadium to be made out of wood

Image: Zaha Hadid Architects

London-based Zaha Hadid Architects has been commissioned to build the world’s first wooden football stadium after beating 50 other entries.

The 5,000-seat space will be constructed entirely from wood, for Gloucestershire-based Forest Green Rovers FC, which plays in the National League.

The “green” stadium will not only be made entirely of wood, but it will also be powered by sustainable energy sources. The stadium is expected to feature an undulating bowl, constructed from slats of timber, as the position of each seat will be calculated to give spectators uninhibited views of the field.

The stadium is designed to provide unrestricted sightlines throughout. Image: Zaha Hadid Architects

The stadium will be the centrepiece of a £100m EcoPark development by green energy specialist Ecotricity across 100 acres beside junction 13 of the M5 in Gloucestershire.

Dale Vince, Ecotricity founder and Forest Green Rovers chairman, said: “Zaha Hadid have built some fantastic sport stadia around the world, including one at the Olympic Park in London; they’ve designed one of the five stadiums for the next World Cup in Qatar, and now they’ve designed one for Forest Green.

“The really standout thing about this stadium is that it’s going to be almost entirely made of wood – the first time that will have been done anywhere in the world.

“The importance of using wood is not only that it’s a naturally occurring material, it has very low carbon content, about as low as it gets for a building material.

“It’s why our new stadium will have the lowest carbon content of any stadium in the world.”

The stadium will be carbon neutral or negative. Image: Zaha Hadid Architects

Jim Heverin, director at ZHA, said. “With the team’s community and supporters at its core, fans will be as close as five metres from the pitch and every seat has been calculated to provide unrestricted sight lines to the entire field of play.

“The stadium’s continuous spectator bowl surrounding the pitch will maximise matchday atmosphere.

“Forest Green Rovers’ new stadium and Eco Park aims to be carbon neutral or carbon negative, including measures such as the provision of onsite renewable energy generation.

“The buildings on the site, and their embodied energy, play a substantial role in achieving this ambitious target and demonstrate sustainable architecture can be dynamic and beautiful.”