Engineers and structural designers must evolve the way sports arenas are designed to meet sustainability and accessibility needs, according to a new report from the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE).
The report titled , Engineering Better Sports Venues: Designing for Athletes, Spectators, and the Environment, discusses the impact sports venues have on the environment and the people using them.
The global sports industry is responsible for approximately 350Mt of carbon equivalent emissions and while a large proportion of this comes from operations, stadia construction and maintenance currently creates a huge amount of emissions.
To combat this, IMechE’s first recommendation suggests sports venues target emission reductions across their entire value chain, including indirect emissions beyond the purchase of energy, known as scope 3.
The report suggests large venues and clubs should leverage their buying power to support the decarbonisation of supply chains and assist smaller venues in their efforts to do the same.
This should be supplemented by governments and sports organisations working together to incentivise public and active transport for all sporting events to encourage more sustainable modes of travel to the venues.
An example the report uses for this recommendation is what was done for the Paris 2024 Olympics and Paralympics games. These events pledged to be carbon neutral by committing to halving greenhouse gas emissions and offsetting residual emissions.
Some technologies it utilised to achieve this include using zero-carbon hockey turf, made of 80% bio-based fibre raw material (sugarcane), and using renewable and recycled material, including natural rubber, end-of-life industrial supply chain materials and a newly developed compound using shellfish shells (containing calcium carbonate), for the athletics track.
IMechE also recommends more organisations employ flexible venue strategies to reduce the carbon footprint of sport, elite and community level venues by maximising their use to reduce the need to build new venues by incentivising hybrid, temporary or portable venues. A recent example of this was the demountable Stadium 974 in Doha, Qatar, created for the 2022 Fifa World Cup.
While the report notes design compromises in multisport venues likely need to be made to accommodate each sport, it says moveable pitches and future innovation in this area may help meet competing demands.
Another big part of the IMechE report discusses how stadiums must be built to be inclusive and safe for everyone that wants to attend them.
To achieve this, the IMechE suggests incorporating thermal comfort standards that take into account the variability of comfort by age, gender and ability, with both spectators and athletes in mind.
It further encourages the use of advanced technologies like sensors and artificial intelligence to update thermal comfort standards. This should consider not just the venue but the seating and transition areas, which can be partly external.
One consistent framework for inclusive sports venue design is also needed to improve the experience for people using the venue, according to the IMechE.
It states that governments should collaborate with disabled communities, engineers, industry professionals, sports organisations and governing bodies to develop a comprehensive guide.
The report says: “Using a systems engineering approach, this guide should integrate existing guidelines and best practices from around the world and should consider:
- More accessible seats where possible that consider a wider range of abilities (for example more legroom, wider width seats, or close proximity to a toilet).
- Improving the experience for disabled people and their families, for example allowing more tickets to be purchased with an accessible seat.
- Increasing and improving the information available to make it easier for people to navigate the venue even before they arrive.
- Engagement pathways to bring engineers, architects and local communities together as part of venue design to ensure diverse users are considered and the benefit to the community is maximised by innovative designs.”
The final recommendation from IMechE on building better sports venues discusses the need for great transparency in the global sports venue industry.
It believes governments should work with the sector to develop stringent requirements that will make new sports venues net zero over their entire lifecycle and existing sports venues net zero in their day-to-day operations.
IMechE policy advisor Kahu Te Kani said: “Sports engineering is everywhere in the world of sport, yet many people do not even know it.
Football Supporters’ Association chair Tom Greatrex said: “The role that supporters play in providing and enhancing the atmosphere is integral to the spectacle of top class sport, as the behind closed doors period during covid demonstrated.
“Football without fans is nothing is a frequently heard statement – but fans deserve to be a key consideration in the design of stadia, not just for their own safety and comfort, but also to ensure the acoustics and atmosphere are not compromised by stadia design.
Credit: newcivilengineer.com
