World Cup Stadium to Feature Green Design

 There’s hasn’t been an abundance of sustainability coverage for the upcoming FIFA World Cup South Africa. Perhaps the excitement around the first-ever hosting of the World Cup on African soil has monopolized the media coverage; or perhaps there just isn’t a lot of sustainability initiatives to report on.
Regardless of the reason, we did find it worthy to highlight a few programs, most notably the design of the newly-built Durban stadium.
Construction of the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban was completed in 2009 and is set to host  70,000 spectators for one of the semi-final matches and numerous group matches.
The design called for a “state-of-the-art landmark sports facility with excellent amenities and a sustainable recreational and multi-disciplinary sporting venue.”
The stadium is stunning in design. Its most notable feature is a large 150-meter arch rising high above the stadium center. A SkyCar funicular system transports visitors to a Skydeck, allowing a birds’ eye view of the stadium, city and nearby coast.
Though large scale event-driven construction is always heavy on resource use, the builders of the Durban stadium minimized construction and demolition impact by utilizing recycled materials from the old stadium. More than 30,000 cubic meters of concrete demolition material from the old stadium was used for construction of the new stadium.

The PTFE-coated roof membrane allows 50 percent of sunlight to filter through while protecting the stadium from glare and rain. The stadium also features a rainwater collection system, water-saving installations, energy-efficient heating and cooling systems and natural ventilation design.
When the World Cup comes to a close mid-July and South Africans find themselves in a sort of post World Cup hangover, the ten beautiful stadiums spanning the country, five new and five updated, will still be standing. The Durban stadium, among others, was built to Olympic standards in the hopes of hosting a future Olympic Games in South Africa.

 Related Articles





Share