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Steeldeck at Glasgow’s new SSE Hydro Arena


SSE Hydro Arena’s turnover crews are relying on Steeldeck retractable units that have been built for strength and durability. Failure is not an option.


T


he team behind SSE Hydro, the new arena which opened in Glasgow in


September and immediately claimed the crown of largest venue of its type in the UK and fi fth largest in the world, had one over-riding goal: they wanted the best solutions to all of the challenges now hidden inside the building’s façade of translucent pneumatic cushions, which allow natural light to penetrate the foyers during the day while also giving a surface for eye catching lighting at night.


That meant that when assembling the usual vast array of sub-contractors required on a project of this scale the building’s owners, the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC), the architects, Foster+Partners, and the principal contractor, Lend Lease, were prepared to choose suppliers who could demonstrate their experience in the particular skills required, regardless of their size. Quality of work rather than business profi le was the key deciding factor.


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For the diffi cult task of creating seating blocks that not only had to retract out of sight when not in use, but do so while following the amphitheatre-like curve of Foster’s performance bowl located beneath a 120 metre clear-span roof, this led them to Steeldeck, the UK company which has gained considerable experience in creating exactly this kind of structure – albeit never before on the scale required in Glasgow.


Theatrical roots


Part of Steeldeck’s advantage is that while it does have a selection of standard designs to work from, most of its installations involve the creation of custom solutions built on the strengths of these core designs; Steeldeck’s ever-inventive team are used to, indeed thrive on, new challenges. The Steeldeck APack retractable seating system began life as a linear system, carefully engineered to allow each seating level to nest tightly beneath the one above and requiring very little additional


depth when retracted. When Hampton School in Middlesex came looking for a curved motorised system for their theatre, APack’s structure provided the foundation from which a new curved design was created.


“Hampton School was where we took the team from Glasgow to show them what was possible,” Steeldeck’s Philip Parsons explains. “I’d arranged access, but when we arrived there was no-one to operate the controller for the seating. Just when it felt like this was going to be an embarrassing disaster, the Bursar appeared, greeted me warmly, offered to demonstrate the seating himself and raved about it in front of our guests. He did a far better selling job than I could have done...”


The Glasgow team were clearly impressed – by the client recommendation (which is not unusual among Steeldeck customers), by the product, and also by the rugged engineering on view here and in other Steeldeck installations. This goes back


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