LUC is pleased to announce that Zaha Hadid Architects has won the Forest Green Rovers stadium design competition, with LUC providing ecological and landscape design assistance.

The announcement follows a seven month international design competition which received over 50 entries from around the world. In May 2016 the entrants were shortlisted to nine and given two months to work up design concepts, before being reduced to two finalists. The final two, consisting of Glenn Howells Architects and Zaha Hadid Architects, were then given two months to further develop their design concepts.

The stadium will be the centrepiece of the £100million Eco Park development in Stroud, Gloucestershire, which encompasses Ecotricity’s 100 acre sports and green technology business park. The southern half of the Eco Park will consist of state-of-the-art sporting facilities, including the new stadium, grass and all-weather training pitches, publicly accessible multi-disciplinary facilities, and a sports science hub. The new stadium has been designed to be constructed almost entirely of wood, with a roof covered with a transparent membrane contributing to turf growth, minimising stark shadows for players and fans, and reduces the visual impact of the stadium from distant views in the surrounding landscape. The stadium’s design incorporates 5,000 spectators with the possibility of expansion to 10,000 in a later phase of work.

The new stadium and Eco Park aims to be carbon neutral or carbon negative including measures such as the provision of on-site renewable energy generation. The rest of the Eco Park will comprise sustainably built commercial offices and light industrial units giving the potential to create up to 4,000 jobs. The proposal also includes the development of an on-site nature reserve, a potential public transport hub, and help with the restoration of the Stroudwater Canal.