News
HOK Sport’s latest design will host its first ever event this month at the 2006 Winter Olympic Games in Turin. The Oval Lingotto will host the speed skating events and its innovative design will help skaters achieve record speed.
The Oval Lingotto is the work of a design team led by HOK Sport in association with Studio Zoppini Associati and consulting engineers Buro Happold. The design of the ice rink had to meet three key criteria: to guarantee high-speed skating performances; to provide a legacy for the local community, for both winter and summer months; and to improve the local environment as an integral part of the urban redevelopment.
John Barrow, Senior Principal of HOK Sport explains the design philosophy. “From the outset, our aim was to satisfy the Olympic requirements for this highly technical building using an innovative structural design to create an impression of a muscular, living canopy to embrace the spectacle of the fastest human-propelled, non-mechanically aided sport on earth”. The building has been carefully scaled to the size of the skating track.
The distinctive building has been described by Olympic officials and athletes as world class for its beauty, functionality and technology. A gently arching roof curves from east to west and is supported on a steel structure consisting of free spanning spine trusses which lend a sensational vaulted effect to the interior. The roof is completely suspended without intermediate supports, so as to create superb sightlines and a single free area. Perfect radiuses of curvature at the bends and ideal technical solutions for incorporating the ice, technological systems and management spaces have all been of paramount importance during the design.
The main east façade is penetrated by a series of ‘pods’ housing offices, meeting rooms and conference facilities, and features a raking façade rhythmically pierced by ventilation louvers under a massive cantilevered overhang. To guarantee high-speed skating and record breaking, careful consideration was given to ever-increasing environmental controls to ensure that the ice surface is perfect; particularly without the natural advantage of altitudes seen in previous Winter Olympic Games sites. The architectural response flowed from the requirement for solar control around the building, the north face being the exception where a wave-like sinuous glazed façade acknowledges the presence of the great Lingotto factory as its immediate neighbour.
The building is required to provide in legacy mode a world class exhibition centre as well as an ice skating sports venue for the winter season every year after the Winter Olympic Games. In exhibition legacy mode, provision has been made within the roof structure to accommodate sliding cross wall and acoustic curtains, enabling conversion of the auditorium into three halls. In sports legacy mode, the facility is to provide 2,000 temporary seats and a continuing quality for the ice track for the sporting season.
- Facts:
- This particular building type is one of only 5 other buildings of its type in the world.
- The facility is located in the southern part of Turin in the Lingotto district, next to the former Fiat motor factory, which was used as a backdrop to the classic car chase in the 1960’s “The Italian Job”.
- Presented to the world in December, the Oval Lingotto hosted a trial event to test various systems and allow the athletes to familiarize themselves with the facility.
- The facility features a vast indoor volume of over 220m long, 110m wide and 16m high.
- 400m long speed skating track
- The building’s footprint covers an area equivalent to four football pitches
- 8,000 seated capacity in Olympic mode
- 2,000 seated capacity in Sport Legacy mode
- Value: €39million
- Winter Olympic Games events will include men’s 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m distances and women’s 500m, 1000m, 1500m, 3000m and 5000m distances.
For further information please contact
Helen Caswell at HOK Sport (London)
Telephone +44 (0)20 8874 7666
Facsimilie +44 (0)20 8874 7470
Email media@hoksve.com