An initial challenge was to fit a stadium of this size into a narrow, irregularly shaped site, hemmed in by a major road, railway sidings and large hotel. The finished arena is actually larger than the site’s footprint, the floor space growing as the structure rises from its foundations and inclines outwards. With no room to store building materials, steel and concrete elements had to be positioned as soon as they were delivered, increasing logistical pressure.
Due to space and height limitations, the stadium has an asymmetric design, with a north stand that is taller and wider than the south stand. This prevented us from standardizing the steel structure on the upper levels, meaning every element had to be individually designed.
The height differences also challenged designers of the vast sliding roof. Their solution was to span the roof space with two huge primary trusses, supported on pylons. The retractable roof runs on wheels on rails along these trusses, which also support lattice girders holding up the surrounding fixed roof.
Tele2Arena was named Venue of the Year at the Stadium Business Awards 2014
