English Football League approve FGR’s Ecopark Stadium

The English Football League has approved proposals by Forest Green Rovers’ to move into the world’s first entirely wooden stadium, designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, in Eco Park.

The EFL approval means the League Two club can now advance their plans for the 5,000-seater Ecopark Stadium.

When completed, Ecopark Stadium will become the new home of Forest Green Rovers (FGR), with important mew facilities for its community.

With the team’s community and supporters at its core, fans will be as close as five metres from the pitch. The stadium’s continuous spectator bowl will maximise match day atmosphere and incorporate the club’s future growth.

World first

Establishing a holistic vision for the site, Ecopark Stadium will embody low carbon construction methods and operational processes. It will also be the first all-wood football stadium, with almost every element made of sustainably sourced timber. As a building material, laminated timber is highly durable, safe and recyclable.

Dale Vince, FGR Chairman, explained during an interview with Sky Sports TV:

From an environmental point of view, 75% of the carbon footprint of all stadia in their entire lifetime comes from the materials they’re made from. It’s not about the energy used to run them, it’s embedded on day one. We’ll have the lowest carbon footprint pf any stadium anywhere in the world since the Romans invented concrete.

Forest Green Rovers’ Ecopark Stadium aims to be carbon neutral (or even carbon negative with the provision of on-site renewal energy generation), demonstrating sustainable architecture can be dynamic and beautiful.

Source: Zaha Hadid Architects

Render, courtesy: MIR