Wood awards 2022

 

The Abba Arena by Stufish, Stage One, and Xylotek is a world-leading example of the use of timber in the commercial sector and the Winner of the Commercial & Leisure Category of the #WoodAwards 2022.

Timber is helping to take visitors on a voyage at ABBA Arena where it is being used for the world’s largest demountable concert venue, including an auditorium, rainscreen, and front-of-house facilities. Based in East London, the Abba Voyage has a capacity of 3,000.

The Arena is effectively two buildings in one. The 70m-diameter dome over the stage & auditorium and its support structure use a steel frame, while the four-storey auditorium is a free-standing building. The flooring, walls and seating banks all comprise structural timber.

Engineered timber construction lends itself to a quick build, is relatively light and is suited to demountability, so no invasive foundations were needed. Instead, the building rests on 300 jack pads, so the former car parks hardstanding will be unscathed when the Arena moves on.

The project was entered into the Wood Awards because of the performance of the auditorium in the round; its light touch, demountability, end-of-life cycle, and acoustics. There is a complexity to it that should also be celebrated. Congratulations to all the team!

https://twitter.com/woodawards/status/1597243157598851073

https://twitter.com/woodawards/status/1597277738075062273

-------------------------------------------------

Architect: Stufish

Client/Owner: ABBA Voyage (Aniara Ltd)

Structural Engineer: Atelier One, Joe Clifton (Stage One) and Corbett & Tasker

‍

Auditorium and Rainscreen

Main Contractor: ES Global

Timber Specialist Contractor: Xylotek Ltd

Timber Technical Design: Xylotek Ltd

Structural Engineer: Corbett & Tasker

Wood Supplier (CLT): Hasslacher Norica Timber

Wood Supplier (Finger jointed larch): Piveteaubois  

Species: Cross Laminated Timber (CLT) – European Spruce (Austria), European Larch (France)

Photography credits: © Martin Phelps

Front of House

Structural Engineer: Atelier One, Joe Clifton (Stage One)

Main Contractor: Stage One Creative Services Ltd

Joinery Company: Stage One Creative Services Ltd

Tensile Membrane Design & Fabrication: Architen Landrell

Larch Cladding: Russwood Ltd

Wood Supplier: ZÜBLIN Timber

Species: Cross Laminated Timber – European Spruce (Germany), Glued Laminated Timber – European Spruce (Austria), European Larch (Austria), Siberian Larch (Russia), Birch Plywood (Estonia), Iroko (Nigeria) – PEFC

Photography credits: © Dirk Lindner

Location: London

Timber is helping to take visitors on a voyage at ABBA Arena where it is being used for the world’s largest demountable concert venue, including an auditorium, rainscreen, and front of house facilities.

Home to the ground-breaking virtual concert series, Abba Voyage, the ABBA Arena in East London is the world’s largest demountable concert venue, with a capacity of 3,000.

From the ‘Auditorium’, a four-storey tall seating area made of 1650 unique cross-laminated panels, each up to 9.9 metres long, to the exterior larch timber ‘Rainscreen’ made up of 1400 finger-jointed larch fins which envelop the arena, timber is integral to every part of this project.

Timber continues into the ‘Front of House’ with the central concourse area covered by a hybrid spruce glulam and steel canopy structure. Twenty-four hexagonal canopies, each with a diameter of 10 metres, combine to form the geometric roof structure where LED lighting is integrated into the glulam beams. The concourse is surrounded by seven CLT buildings, each clad with a complex Larch rainscreen.

https://www.woodawards2022.online/shortlists/abba-arena

Buildings Introduction by Jim Greaves Chair of Buildings Judges

‍

While wood has long been employed for its aesthetic qualities, increasingly it is its low embodied carbon and carbon store characteristics that make it a favoured material choice within our built environment. The range of buildings in which timber is used continues to grow, and this can be seen in our shortlist. It is a testament to an evolving industry that is embracing timber.

From over 200 entries, our shortlist showcases the very best of construction using wood in the UK. The quality this year was very high: to make it onto the shortlist is an impressive achievement in and of itself. Each of these projects is at the forefront of design, craftsmanship and innovation - amongst any building in the UK,  not just those that use timber.

Timber can help us reach the highest contemporary building standards. So, it is unsurprising that wood is being more widely embraced, and that timber buildings are being more widely recognised. For over 30 years, the Wood Awards have promoted inspiring timber design - as evidenced with last year’s Wood Awards Gold Winner, Magdalene College Library.

For 2022 we have created a new Building category: Restoration and Reuse. We decided to add this after viewing projects such as the Threshing Barn and the Water Tower.

These buildings work with what is already there, reducing carbon footprints by avoiding unnecessary demolition. They recognise that the lowest embodied carbon building is the one that already exists. Both buildings seamlessly and effortlessly weave old and new together. While the first restores a barn to its former glory, the latter rediscovers a piece of our industrial heritage.

The Restoration and Reuse category demonstrates the ways timber can help enhance existing buildings. But this is not the only way timber is being used in this year’s Wood Awards. Every shortlisted entry is an example of excellence.

Whether you look to the Commercial category, where the ABBA Arena and UK Hardwoods Storage Centre show timber being embraced as a construction material in its own right, or to our Educational or Private sector entries, where timber is building the homes and learning spaces of tomorrow, you will see that wood is increasingly being used as the construction material of choice.

I would like to thank my fellow judges for contributing their time and expertise to this process, including visiting all twenty shortlisted projects. It is the fact that so much time and commitment is put into visiting and assessing these projects that makes these awards a true measure of the best of wood design for 2022.

Finally, I would like to congratulate our winners. They represent the best of contemporary wood architecture. With this in mind, I very much look forward to seeing what next year has to offer..

https://www.woodawards2022.online/winners

-----------------------------

Abba Arena Rainscreen

Abba Arena Rainscreen

7000M2 LARCH SCREEN

The ABBA Arena rainscreen is a demountable exterior timberscreen that envelops the hexagonal-plan Arena building constructed for the Abba Voyage show in London. Covering an area of over 7000 sqm, the screen consistsof 1400 finger-jointed larch fins with a total length of about 15km. It also incorporates an insect mesh, and is factory fire treated and stained with a pre grey accelerated aging oil to homogenise the timber as it ages naturally towards silver grey

Xylotek were responsible for the technical design of the screen, its fabrication and erection.

The larch was sourced from PiveteauBois, in elements up to 15m long, which were preassembled by Xylotek in Bristol into 204 independent panels, each optimised for road transport to site and for future relocation ofthe theatre.

A pair of assembly jigs were developed that allowed the varying splay angles for each panel to be accurately created, at the production rate required by the tight project programme.

The installation was carried out by Xylotek in winter 2021, requiring well-considered crane lift methods to raise the panels – especially those on the underslung parts of the screen.

The Arena, located in Stratford, London, hosts the virtual ABBA Voyage concerts, and is designed to be demountable for future relocation. Xylotek also carried out the production of the internal auditorium in cross laminated timber.

Project Year

2022

Xylotek Role

Geometry definition, techical design, realisation and installation

Project Team

Architect: Stufish // Project engineer: Atelier One // Main contractor: ES Global // Engineer for rainscreen: Corbett & Tasker

Photo Credits

Photos: Martin Phelps // Render: Stufish

-----------------------------------

Xylotek

https://www.facebook.com/abbaregistro/posts/pfbid02SbKQAQxogcTEvvSc6V7cv9zuWXiM5iSD964xAG5p2rjeXvgxdQysAvCD1JfUjorEl

Abba Arena Auditorium - Xylotek

 Abba Arena Auditorium

DEMOUNTABLE CLT THEATRE STRUCTURE

The ABBA Arena Auditorium forms the seating areas for the ABBA Voyage concerts, as well as incorporating entrance and bar areas, vertical circulation, fire escape corridors, and technical zones. It has a footprint of about 80 x 50m, is four storeys tall, and consists of 1650 unique cross laminated panels of dimensions up to 9.9m long. It sits within, and structurally independent of, the steel-framed enveloping walls and roof of the arena.

‍

Xylotek joined the project team during its design development, initially as design consultants, to develop a solution wholly in mass timber (as an alternative to a steel framed approach). Having proven the viability for a cost-effective, demountable, scheme in cross laminated timber, we then were appointed for its full design, fabrication and installation. We worked with CLT supplier Hasslacher who produced and machined each of the unique panels which were delivered, just-in-time, in batches to the Stratford site.

The original scheme had around 144 tonnes of steel + 630m3 of CLT; our scheme has 900m3 of CLT which approximately halves the embodied carbon

The project presented exciting challenges. The non-orthonogal design – derived from the overall hexagonal form of the Arena - added significant geometric complexity compared to more conventional regular orthogonal CLT structure. We therefore established a rigorous process of 3d geometric modelling and data handling, integrating fabrication and install-sequence information into the model from the outset, and working closely with Hasslacher to provide CADCAM ready data. Given the geometric complexity, it was decided that a separate installation drawing was needed every panel. These were produced with programming help from Mule Studio.

‍

Another challenge was to maximise the ease of disassembly of the structure to allow for its future relocation. CLT panels are typically joined together with lots of large screws which are challenging to remove. To address this, we developed – with our subconsultant engineers Corbett & Tasker - a system that mainly uses bolted connections. The use of glulam ‘ledger’ elements and ‘Idefix’ recessed connectors –combined to enable adjoining CLT panels to be structurally joined, even when one face is inaccessible. We believe this approach has broader potential for lifecycle considerations of CLT buildings in making dismantling and reuse of CLT panels possible (and so keep its captured carbon out of the atmosphere for longer).

‍

The 600 tonne auditorium structure has no groundworks! Driven again by the need for demountability, the CLT structure is carried on over 300 JackPad portable foundations which sit directly on the tarmac of the existing car park on the site. Each JackPad wast adjusted vertically to account for variation in the carpark level and keep the CLT structure level. The large number of pads means that bearing pressures are kept low. The auditorium is thus wholly demountable.

‍

The fire protection of the CLT was of critical importance and was achieved through spray-applied spread-of-flame treatments (applied by ATOL Construction). This was applied partly in-situ on the assembled structure, and partly onto panels pre-assembly (in a neighbouring marquee) for panels where accessibility would be difficult when assembled.

‍

The Arena, located in Stratford, London, hosts the virtual ABBA Voyage concerts, and is designed to be demountable for future relocation. Xylotek also carried out the production of the external timber raincreen.

Xylotek

https://www.xylotek.co.uk/projects/abba-arena-auditorium

https://www.facebook.com/abbathenewsongs/posts/pfbid0FjPsceYvHGq2ZYAnaB2FBgi1fejk2xx814f7YXadLULEJRCAr98yohsLy9uw3qo7l

https://www.facebook.com/abbaregistro/posts/pfbid02w9pLYUnMCFiDRAnkrWVXJVQ5JDg3SELEbzQPC6UHysRBFo8YDBYhQs9CUfUP7nZml