Should all stadiums be circular?

I find it hard to believe it is already over ten years since the heady days of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. But there are two words that still reverberate around my mind from that time: LEGACY and SUSTAINBILITY. And guess what? Those two words are still on everybody’s lips, perhaps even more so, when we talk about major global events today. I well remember chairing a sports conference in Moscow during the planning for the 2018 FIFA World Cup where one delegate put up a slide displaying nothing but the phrase “Legacy- the L Word”. (Hint: if you’re presenting to a Russian speaking audience through an interpreter, such wordplay doesn’t really work!).

Two summer Olympics and three FIFA World Cups later, as we embark on planning and designing for the Brisbane 2032 Games, I ask myself, what has really worked, and how can we improve? The Queensland Government has set some very ambitious targets, including a commitment to deliver a “climate positive” games and a master plan focused on achieving optimal legacy outcomes over the next 20 years and beyond. A key element in Brisbane delivering on these commitments will be in the venue selection, with 84 per cent of the proposed venues being existing or temporary. And for those few new venues, designing for a long term economically viable legacy use must take precedence.

Getting the venue mix right

The use of temporary venues is nothing new. Indeed, the proportion of temporary venues at early editions of the summer Olympic Games was higher than anything we have seen in the 21st Century, although this was largely a result of fewer participants and simpler field of play technical requirements1. The Tug-of-War event at the 1900 Paris Olympics was held in the same venue as the Athletics; I haven’t checked the attendance, but I’m willing to guess it drew less interest than Usain Bolt’s golden moments.

Towards the end of the 20th century, the use of temporary venues dramatically reduced, but the 21st century has seen a marked renaissance in their deployment, actively encouraged by the IOC in response to a desire to eliminate “white elephant” venues, and facilitated by technological advances and increased availability of sustainable new materials.

Looking back at London 2012, I see some great examples of legacy transformation especially around the athletes village and media centre. And at a smaller scale there are examples such as the synthetic hockey pitches which are now serving the local community at Sheffield Hallam University. But when it comes to some of the major venues, the picture is less rosy.? The cost of converting the London 2012 athletics stadium into a soccer stadium was higher per seat than for most new build stadiums, while the temporary basketball stadium, heralded as one of the largest temporary venues in the world at the time, never did make it to Rio once the cost and practicalities of dismantling, transporting and reassembling a venue of that scale was considered. On the other hand, much of the internal tiered seating has been reused in more modest facilities. Perhaps there is a lesson there; it is far more practical to reuse a kit of parts than an entire facility.

Turning to the Rio Olympic Park, where I was privileged to lead the engineering team designing many of the permanent and temporary venues, we developed what we thought was a very robust strategy for creating buildings with real long-term legacy or, in the case of the temporary venues, well thought through and imaginative methods of disassembling transporting and re-erecting them. Yet today, much of the Rio Olympic Park sits desolate, a victim of the economic collapse and financial scandals which hit the delivery partners. This is another important lesson; it does not matter how well planned and designed the buildings and infrastructure are if the long-term governance and finance structures are not sufficiently robust to support the legacy ambitions.

Completing the circle

So, what does this all mean for Brisbane 2032?

There is already a robust master plan for the long-term use of the new facilities. The proposed new arena at Roma Street Station is a case in point. By delivering an entertainment focused facility, which is adapted temporarily for swimming during the Games, there is an opportunity to create a game changing destination for Queensland: - a truly world-class, multi-use venue, integrated with the public transport system, which can attract the world’s most in-demand performers for decades to come. That’s long-term thinking; that’s legacy.

But beyond that, I think that our industry has an incredible opportunity with the 2032 Games to reduce environmental impacts by decreasing the need for new materials and minimising waste in the future.

What it takes is matching action to intention. Together, we have more knowledge and experience than we’ve ever had before. We can know the future when designing today because we can set up circular economy supply chains so that components can be designed specifically for reuse. We also have templates available to develop economic use cases for disassembly and reuse. We need to fully embrace modular construction and digital tracking and tracing of materials and components. And we have learned, through bitter experience, that governance structures are key from the early planning stages through to deconstruction and redeployment.

There is much to consider now, and in the future, when it comes to designing venues for the 2032 Games. We cannot rely on willpower to succeed; this will come from being more strategic. I’m looking forward to seeing industry grab hold of the opportunities to build momentum now for the 2032 Games that will carry far beyond the single event and leave a positive legacy for our future environment and people.

And I do foresee a successful legacy- great new community facilities, better public transport, energy transformation, and high-performance low carbon buildings.? But perhaps the greatest legacy Brisbane 2032 can leave is by showing the world how to truly embrace circular economy principles into future major event infrastructure.

Read more about this and other thoughts on major venues and events, or watch my videos on the Aurecon website here.?

#Brisbane2032 #BeyondTheGames #Aurecon #SustainableStadia #CircularEconomy

References

1.???? “Over 125 years of Olympic venues: post-Games use”, The Olympic Studies Centre www.olympic.org/studies 22/04/2022