BY: SHAWTAE HARRIS
Gloucestershire, England will have a new Eco Park that features a technology hub connected to a stadium. Zaha Hadid Architects is planning to build a glasshouse-like structure and bridge that will connect to the world’s first wooden football stadium.
The design was brought forth by the late Iraqi-British architect, Zaha Hadid. The bridge will connect two parts of the ecosystem, the technology side and the sports side. The Eco Park will include the new 5,000 seat stadium, a sporting facility and a science hub.
“The bridge design creates one single, fluid form by fusing together individual timber elements,” Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) said to dezeen. “This important, unifying gesture builds connections for the community, conveying Eco Park as a facility for all.”
Last year, Zaha Hadid Architects won an international stadium design competition. The company beat out competition from 50 other entrees from America and Europe. This gave the team the ability to build the stadium completely from wood. The stadium will have the lowest carbon content of any stadium in the world since it is only made from wood, and it’s powered completely by renewable sources.
“The club’s heritage, ambition, and vision reflect our own, combining the latest material research, and construction techniques with new design approaches to build a more ecologically sustainable and inclusive architecture,” said ZHA director Jim Heverin to dezeen.
The studio hopes that this 100-acre Eco Park will create 4,000 new jobs for the community, and give a biodiversity boost to nature in the area.
Patrik Schumacher, the former co-director, now runs the company. After Hadid died of a heart attack last March, Schumacher took over the British business. “In terms of the future of ZHA, how we are moving forward is maintaining research and innovative thrust,” said Schumacher. “But in the context of what I call global best practice – very mature, sophisticated products for the most demanding, high-performance, high-value arenas.”
Zaha Hadid was the first woman to receive the Stirling Prize, in 2010 and 2011, the most prestigious award given to an architect.
Zaha Hadid Architects recently built an archaeology centre in Saudi Arabia. Built to protect the 120-kilometre long valley of Wadi Hanifah. The eye shaped atrium includes a gallery, workspaces, libraries and a scientific institution for research.
Dubai recently made a similar eco-friendly park. The park, made for community involvement and health, is 800,000 square feet wide. It has 18 miles of pedestrian pathways, 12 miles of jogging, four miles of nature trails and nine miles of cycling.