Barnet FC’s The Hive gets slick seating

A new 2,700-seat stand was built in just six weeks at Barnet FC’s new stadium, The Hive, ready for the start of the season.

The West Stand at the Bees’ new Edgeware home has increased the ground’s capacity to 5,100, including 3,500 seats, after construction began in April.

The stand was erected by tiered seating specialists GL events Slick Seating and comprises a seating deck, fixed onto a steel structure. This build technique is unusual for British football stadia, which usually have stands consisting of stepped concrete terraces.

Although built in a fraction of the time of a traditional concrete stand, the West Stand is capable of lasting just as long as any other permanent stand. All of its seats, which are coloured amber and black to reflect the club’s colours, are in place, while beneath the stand, contractors are now installing toilets and concessions.

Scott Hayward, managing director of Slick Seating, said: “There’s a huge amount of interest in the stand among supporters who were excited about seeing such a large facility taking shape so quickly.”

The new stand at Barnet’s The Hive

Going airborne – G8 partners The Farley Group

UK-based 8 Design has partnered with Canadian company Farley Group to introduce a new air dome system to the UK market. The partnership was formed after G8, a chartered architects and project management company specialising in sports projects, assessed economical means for getting roofs over sports pitches.

The results of G8’s study showed that an air-supported structure could be built over pretty much any pitch - usually for less than half the cost of a “normal building”. Air domes are already well used in parts of Europe, North America and Canada as they are able to create a dry environment for training in regions that regularly have to deal with adverse weather.

G8’s research of several suppliers found a significant variance in customer service and in dome quality. After analysis of manufacturing in Eastern Europe they looked at suppliers in North America and Canada. The company’s preferred system is a dome system made in Canada by The Farley Group. Farley’s product options include insulation and heavy fabric, which provide good thermal properties – so lower energy use and running costs.

G8 were so impressed with the product and track record of The Farley Group that the two are now partnering to deliver a one-stop solution.

Together they provide a quote to complete all ground works, pitch surfacing; lighting; mechanical and electrical services. They can work with a customers design team or obtain all planning and building standards consents on their own.

Farley’s domes are used across North America

Domes are popular among sports clubs in regions that suffer from adverse weather conditions

New Training Hall for Dutch Olympians

Pellikaan tasked with creating a venue with sustainability at its heart

Pellikaan Construction built a high quality and highly sustainable training centre for the Dutch Olympic Committee and the Dutch Sports Federation at the Olympic Training Park Papendal in Arnhem, Netherlands. The Arnhem Hall was designed by Hooper Architects and contains two large sports halls, a 130m sprint hall, an athletics hall (multi-event, discus-throwing, shot-put, high jump) and a dedicated martial arts hall.

The cardio, strength and rehab areas are among the best in Europe in regards to quality of facilities and service. Particular attention was paid to facilities for Paralympic athletes and the sports hall will have high speed cameras with GPS and the latest technologies so optimum coaching is possible for every athlete.

Sustainability was a key element in the development and resulted in material choices including FRC-certified wood for the elevation, meaning hardly any maintenance will be required. The insulation levels of the hall are extremely high and low-energy plant was installed including ground source heat storage. The ground source heat pump is used by the whole sports park. Even the heat from the kitchen is extracted and saved for future use.

The inside space at the new Papendal facility

Pellikaan used a number of environmentally friendly materials, such as FRC-certified wood

Norseman keeping busy with UK projects

Norseman Structures has completed a number of projects across the UK recently.

The company partnered with Charles Lawrence Surfaces and Willmott Dixon on the construction of an indoor football and rugby facility at Oxford Academy in Oxford (pictured right). The spacious, naturally lit structure is 115’ wide x 195ft long (30m x 55m).

In Northamptonshire, Norseman supplied Spratton Hall School with a 64ft wide x 113ft long (19.8m x 34.7m) indoor sports facility – The Jubilee Dome. The facility, which includes a netball, tennis and volleyball court, as well as four badminton courts, provides a building solution that enables sports activities, lessons and after school clubs to continue even in poor weather.

In Newcastle upon Tyne, the company worked on Tennis@Churchill – a four court tennis facility at Churchill Community College in Wallsend. The 125ft wide x 212ft long (38.0m x 64.6m) indoor tennis facility allows players to participate in sport year round, even in the most adverse weather conditions.

Norseman has offices in the US, Canada and the UK has also worked on sports centres, hockey and football complexes as well as multi-purpose health and fitness facilities.

The Oxford Academy uses natural light and was built in partnership with Willmott Dixon

Academy’s new football training facility

Rubb Buildings was a key player in the team tasked with completing a new indoor training facility for Sunderland Association Football Club (SAFC). Sunderland’s stars of the future began using the Rubb training hub at the Academy of Light, Cleadon following the official opening on 7 December 2012.

Rubb, which has its HQ in nearby Gateshead, pitched in with Tolent Construction and architects Red Box Design Group to make SAFC’s long awaited training facility plans a reality.

The sports building features Rubb’s largest building span width to date at 82.4m. The facility measures 64m long with sidewalls of 7.75m and a central internal clearance of 10m.

The structure stands 12.5m high at its apex and comprises a galvanized steel frame, a white PVC-clad roof, a large gutter system, a Fullflow syphonic drainage system and four large vent roof cowls along the apex.

The translucent roof allows natural daylight to illuminate the interior which includes a full size indoor 3G football pitch. The sidewalls and gables are constructed with stone-filled gabion cages up to 3.8m high with the upper part clad with larch timber. A large roller shutter door (7.6m x 3.8m) provides access via the south gable of the building, along with three personnel doors. Two additional personnel doors complete the north gable.

Rubb general manager Ian Hindmoor said: “This is our largest span building to date and our third training facility for a Premier League football club. We’re looking forward to seeing our clients use and enjoy their new venue.”

Peter Weymes, facilities manager at SAFC, commented: “The building is currently being used by the Academy’s youngsters and has been described as the best facility of its type at club level in the country.”

Technical sales engineer Ian Mackley secured the Sunderland project with construction company Tolent and SAFC on Rubb’s behalf.

The structure is 64m long and has been described as the best academy facility in the country

Flooring for non traditional structures

Sweden-based Bergo manufactures modular flooring and recently supplied St Damien’s College in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire with its MultiSport indoor surface.

The injection-moulded polypropylene tiles at St Damiens were installed as part of the Building for Schools programme. The school needed a new sports hall so a temporary building was erected with MultiSport tiles installed as the playing surface.

The surface is durable too – after two years, the surface from St Damien’s was relocated to St Thomas Moore RC College as a netball and basketball pitch funded by its parent teacher association.

Acting like a sprung floor, the surface is proving very popular for basketball and netball courts as well as general sports use. The interlocking system can be quickly laid over concrete or tarmac, lending itself to upgrading non-traditional buildings for sports use or creating a temporary facility.
Bergo’s UK Distributor, TactTiles, has tapped into several applications for the MultiSport floor tiles. Another educational facility – Stockport College – has a Basketball Academy on MultiSport tiles.

An added benefit of MultiSport is that buildings with sweating floors, leaky roofs or poor heating – issues sometimes associated with temporary builds – are no problem for its vented, raised floor system. The low maintenance plastic tiles also cope well with wet and dirt and are being used at outdoor events centres such as Kingston Maurward Agricultural College, The Birmingham Scouts Association and Dixie Grammar School, where wet and muddy equipment is regularly brought in after activities. All of these organisations refurbished old and underused buildings on a budget and have created practical and serviceable centres.

TactTiles flooring can be used indoors and outside, as well as under part-covered structures to create training and practice areas. Mini courts using the system can be used by children to practise shooting at goal or learning to play tennis or other ball sports.

TactTiles can be used indoors and outside

Spatial Structures completes new tennis centre structure for Portsmouth City

Spatial Structures, the Cheltenham based specialist manufacturer and builder of steel framed fabric covered buildings has just completed works on the Mountbatten Indoor Tennis Centre for Raymond Brown Construction.

Delivered to Portsmouth City Council, the structure provides a new tennis facility covering four existing courts over an area of 258,000sq ft. Spatial Structures were commissioned by Raymond Brown Construction to design and build the indoor court fabric covered structure. It forms part of a popular leisure centre complex which includes an athletics track, velodrome, sports hall, gym and swimming pool.

Duncan Glen, contracts manager at Raymond Brown Construction, said: “It’s an exciting project for both companies, and having recognised Spatial’s expertise in this field, we knew from the outset that the local people of Portsmouth would be provided with a high quality end product.”

Terry Young. MD of Spatial, said: “The new building will be a great asset to the local area and a fantastic addition to what is already a very impressive range of facilities. Given the unpredictable nature of the British weather we are seeing a growing demand in centres and clubs wanting to cover existing facilities, meaning that bad weather need never stop play or training.”

The covered tennis courts now forms a part of a larger leisure centre complex

Veldeman builds indoor football hall for top Belgian team

KRC Genk FC plays in Belgium’s first division and the team has been national champion three times, won the Belgian cup four times and has participated in the Champions League as well as in the Europa League in the last couple of years.

As an elite club, it needed a facility to train in all weather conditions. Up until last year bad weather meant players had to head for an arena, where they were reduced to playing on sand in somewhat uncomfortable conditions.

Having made a decision to invest in a bespoke training facility, their search led them to Veldeman Structure Solutions – designer and manufacturer of fabric structures and sports halls. Veldeman presented a proposal for an indoor football hall, in the first instance both for hire and for purchase. Following an extensive study the club decided to purchase a hall at the end of 2011.

A steel structure was decided upon (SFS, Steel Fabric Structure) of 40m by 70m with a side height of as much as 8.40m. Following approval of the building application, in February 2012 the foundation work began. The hall has been completed and ready for use since the end of May 2012.

The hall has translucent roof fabrics which let in natural, uniform light, thus bringing down lighting costs and leading to major energy savings. Playing comfort is also improved. Fabrics in the blue of KRC Genk have been used for the side walls and gables, and the club’s logo, covering a surface area of 16sq m, is clearly visible on both gables. The side walls can be readily removed thus creating a semi open atmosphere in summer while protecting against glare, rain and overheating. There is boarding for additional variations on the game. Along the length of the hall (70 m) this is 3m high, along its width (40m) 2m high.

The side walls of the hall can be removed, creating a “semi-open” site in the summer months