A systematic approach for the preliminary design of stadium roofs

Stadiums are iconic landmarks and historically significant structures. From an engineering standpoint they are large-scale, geometrically complex and test the limits of material, requiring sophisticated design techniques. Their construction is also a major contributor to total global emissions. Structural integrity, economic design and sustainability are important design considerations from an early stage. In the preliminary design stages, requirements for strength, stiffness and stability need to ensure structural safety and to minimise resource consumption. Design decisions made in this stage have the greatest potential to improve the costs, environmental impact and benefits attained with a structural form. In practice, several design alternatives must be assessed to arrive at an ideal or optimised solution, which makes traditional design techniques highly effort-consuming. In preliminary design, efficient design solutions can be created with the help of parametric modelling. However, parametric tools are typically applied to well-developed design problems rather than early conceptual design problems. In the present work a systematic parametric modelling approach to support the design and optimisation of open stadium roofs is proposed. It focuses on the structural typology and material usage of several stadium roofs. The need for a progressive approach to conceptual parametric design where complexity is progressively introduced in the parametric model is emphasised. This approach is studied in the parametric design of a radial stadium where variations of structural mass can occur when deciding between preliminary design parameters and comparing parametric solutions within a feasible empirical parametric space. Parametric design is shown to have large potential in significantly improving current design outcomes and enabling fully optimal automated stadium roof designs.