Innovative Design

Queensland Country Bank Stadium

Arup

Arup has been awarded the prestigious 2020 Design Innovation Award by Consult Australia for the Queensland Country Bank Stadium which has become a new focus for sport and culture in North Queensland. The 25,000-seat multi-purpose stadium which opened in February, capitalises on its beautiful location with innovative structural design and sustainability features.

The undulating, pandanus leaf-inspired cantilevered roof can withstand cyclonic winds and covers more than 75% of seats. The elegant design incorporates ‘folded plates’ to achieve its unique geometry in place of trusses which are traditionally used in stadium roofs. Arup’s Project Director, Ian Ainsworth said it was an honour to receive the award from Consult Australia. “We knew it would be a city-shaping project for Townsville and we brought our global stadium design and spectator experience understanding to the work,” Ian said.

“The completed stadium roofline looks deceptively simple due to its streamlined, visual consistency, but the realisation of the competition-winning architectural vision was only possible through the innovative development of geometrically-driven and cost-efficient design solutions honed using advanced parametric tools. The undulating, pandanus leaf-inspired cantilevered roof can withstand cyclonic winds and covers more than 75% of seats. The elegant design incorporates ‘folded plates’ to achieve its unique geometry in place of trusses which are traditionally used in stadium roofs.

be constructed from simple straight components, ultimately minimising material quantities.”

The Arup team based in Brisbane and Townsville worked closely with national, state and local government, the rest of the design team led by architects Cox Architecture and Counterpoint Architecture, and the managing contractor Watpac, providing structural and civil engineering, traffic and transport consultancy, environmentally sustainable design and acoustics consultancy services.

The sustainability initiatives included within the new stadium include rainwater harvesting, energy efficiency and water saving fixtures. In late 2016, Arup joined with Cox Architecture to win a design competition for the stadium. The winning Cox-Arup design was based on a horseshoe-shaped bowl and roof design which opens to the north east to catch the prevailing breezes and allow panoramic views to the city centre, Castle Hill and Magnetic Island.

Judges’ Comments:

The Judges would like to congratulate Arup for winning the 2020 Innovative Gold Design Award, they felt that it was a great project with an innovative design, linking it to the local natural environment, with the creative use of digital tools and 3D printing in the design process giving the town a wonderful end result providing social and economic benefits to the community.

They are to be congratulated on their outstanding entry and the outcomes achieved for an iconic structure for FNQ. The design innovation in the mimicking of the Padanus leaf in a folded plate structural form is innovative and gives the stadium a real link to the natural form. The technical innovation in carrying out wind tunnel testing in a cyclonic region on a structure with a very atypical form for a stadium is highly novel. The team is to be applauded for their efforts and are deserving winners of this year’s gold award.