Winter Sports B
ack in August 2006, a replacement stadium for Dunedin’s ageing Carisbrook Stadium was still very much in its infancy. With the 2011 Rugby World Cup already confirmed for New Zealand, the Carisbrook Stadium Charitable Trust had just been formed and two possible scenarios were being investigated for a new stadium in Dunedin - redevelop the existing Carisbrook Stadium or construct a completely new one.
A new stadium was seen as the better option, because it could be combined with a proposed Otago University development. It could also be designed from scratch to accommodate a variety of non-sporting events, making the stadium truly multi-purpose.
A preliminary report, completed by the Trust in October 2006, concluded that a new multi-purpose stadium was a feasible option that warranted further investigation. By February 2007, the Trust had produced a masterplan and feasibility report which had investigated four
redevelopment options at Carisbrook and two options for a new stadium. Dunedin City Council voted to proceed with the preferred multi-purpose stadium option in association with the university. The challenge was that the stadium brief required a design for a permanently- closed roof, under which natural turf was expected to grow, a feat that had not been achieved successfully before. Nevertheless, the report had
highlighted that the development of clear cladding and roofing materials, such as ethylene tetrafluoro ethylene (ETFE), represented a realistic option for constructing a fully enclosed stadium that could support natural turf.
Over the next two years, a formidable design team, assembled by project and delivery managers Arrow International, set to work on turning this concept into a real building using a feasibility driven process. The design team included joint venture architects Populous and Jasmax, structural engineers SKM and services/civil engineers Aurecon. Sports Surface Design & Management (SSDM), the consultancy division of Recreational Services Ltd, was engaged as turf consultants. Stakeholders for the project were Dunedin City Council, Otago Regional Council, The University of Otago and The NZ Community Trust.
Research and design phase - early research and trials work
One of the early turf feasibility reports listed so many challenges that it was clear turf trials work would be required using a specially constructed ETFE test rig. A proposed methodology was determined with input from Vector Foiltec (the leading manufacturer and supplier of ETFE) and submitted in June 2007 for consideration by Arrow International and the Trust. Turf trials work commenced in July 2007 with the building of an ETFE test rig at Carisbrook’s turf nursery (Image 1). SSDM was engaged to carry out the trials in conjunction with the then Carisbrook head groundsman Coryn Huddy. Two
formal trials were conducted in the test rig, the first one ending in March 2008 (spring and summer trial) and the second one ending in September 2008 (autumn and winter trial).
From October 2008 until September 2009, testing continued in the rig, but at a more informal level. By this time the first two formal trials had validated the concept that turf could grow successfully under ETFE, albeit with some challenges, and the final informal trialing carried out by Coryn Huddy allowed various maintenance techniques that were likely to be required in the real stadium to be tested (eg. fertiliser management). The trials also supplied two other important pieces of information for the design team. The first was the supply of data that was used to help model levels of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) likely to be found in the real stadium (Image 2); the second was that the trials helped guide the pitch design process which started in March 2008.
Pitch design stages
The pitch design process was split into three discrete stages to mirror those carried out by the wider design team, who had started designing the stadium structure in July 2007.
Preliminary design - The preliminary design stage was a robust ‘bridging’ report that reviewed potential pitch designs, and which brought together the results of the ETFE test rig work, the light prediction modeling work, and budget and construction timing issues. The initial pitch design stage also reviewed the availability of pitch construction materials in the Dunedin region, a comparison of pitch designs used by other stadia around the country, a review of artificial lighting and turf reinforcement systems, plus liaison with the key stakeholders to ascertain pitch performance objectives.
The outcome of the above analysis was a decision making process that addressed specific design challenges for the project
“The Forsyth Barr stadium is the world’s first permanently- roofed stadium with natural turf, where not a single drop of rain will ever fall on the surface”
DECEMBER/JANUARY 2012 PC 57
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