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Designed by COX Architecture to create an unrivalled experience for spectators, athletes, artists and entertainers while minimising risk and environmental impact, the new world-class Allianz Stadium positions spectators closer to the action than ever before with 42,500 seats for sporting events and a capacity of 55,000 for major concerts and large-scale events. Nestled on the edge of the Sydney CBD, the Sydney Football Stadium was originally designed in the 80s by COX and has been recently redeveloped by the design-led architecture team, with the four-year project completing in 2022. Delivering on their ethos of ‘doing more with less’ to use 40% less steel in the construction of the stadium’s roof structure, COX showcases the latest in environmentally aware design innovation. The project highlights how far cross-team design collaboration, environmental impact reduction, and risk minimisation has come through the use of tools including Autodesk Construction Cloud and the AEC Collection.
COX is a global, design-led contemporary architecture firm with offices across every major Australian city. The firm is built around designers who collaborate with clients, stakeholders and communities, and has an ethos of ‘doing more with less’ with dedication to researching and delivering successful design solutions for globally significant projects on time and on budget.
“COX continually seeks out the brightest minds for innovation, design, process and typology, welcoming collaboration from both traditional and disruptive sources to contribute to better designs,” said COX Director Russell Lee.
COX’s innovative technology and structural design solutions place emphasis and value on the design of core elements. Its structures are created as destinations to bring people together to share experiences that are unique to time and place, transcending design.
“The original Sydney Football Stadium represented a realisation that stadia could provide iconic architectural expression. Allianz Stadium builds on this, with a unique diagrid roof form covering all seats and providing a distinct recognisable identity for the stadium,” said Mr Lee.
Russell Lee, Director at Cox Architecture
Originally built in 1988 next to the Sydney Cricket Ground, the Sydney Football Stadium was designed by the team at COX Architecture both in the 80s and again for the redesign completed in 2022. Mr Lee worked across both projects.
The redeveloped multi-use rectangular stadium, Allianz Stadium, represents the latest in global sport architecture trends, hosting football, rugby league, and rugby union. The stadium is also ready-made for cultural and community events. A ‘stadium in the park’, Allianz Stadium enhances the significant recreation and sports precinct at Moore Park, creating new active spaces for patrons and the community to host local, national, and international events at scale.
Building on the legacy of the original stadium, the dynamic roof form provides cover to 100% of seats and has simultaneously created a signature for the stadium. Indigenous artist Tony Albert is responsible for the design of the artwork that is displayed across the seats. Titled ‘Two Worlds Colliding’, the artwork looks to bring together two separate groups imagined as land and sea, like home and away teams playing one another. COX worked closely with long-standing partners Arup and Aspect studios, the delivery team that included Aurecon and Schlaich Bergermann Partner, led by design and construct contractor John Holland and funded by the NSW Government.
The stadium is future proofed for changes in technology and operations, built in at every step. This includes improved media and broadcast facilities, international standard team facilities, and a 360-degree service road.
“The technology has come leaps and bounds since the 80s,” said Mr Lee.
“Previously, everyone had to stop working while information was processed. With vast improvements in innovation, using tools such as Autodesk Construction Cloud and the AEC Collection, we’ve been able to use software to collaborate with an interdisciplinary approach to design to look at a whole range of issues including safety and customer experience. In the 80s, there was a lot of risk. Now, it’s become incredibly safe,” said Mr Lee.
Part of COX’s design challenge was to enable greater accessibility across the venue; to reduce the impact on the environment; and to minimise risk associated with a venue of this size and scale. To do this, the team needed to overcome challenges of collaboration across studios, the creation of common data environments, and the sharing, coordination and communication of design elements throughout the project.
“We were looking to create a design that provides greater accessibility across the venue, including to the 64 food and beverage outlets, which provide a variety of options promoted by clear wayfinding and easy circulation,” said Mr Lee. “There is an emphasis on equity of access for all, including 330 dedicated wheelchair viewing positions. There are four gender-neutral change rooms and state-of-the-art player, coach and official facilities.”
In addition to the roof now covering 100% of the seats, with the arrangement of stands creating a sea of faces with views of the playing field, there is an increased number of amenities. The heart of the project is the activated events platform that forms a flexible public precinct, without fences or barriers.
Stuart Harper, Director at COX, said, “One of the reasons the Sydney Football Stadium was upgraded was to improve safety outcomes. Using the Autodesk platform, we were able to simulate exit times for patrons to be safe in an emergency. Safety has been woven into the new design and tested prior to completion, rather than having to go back and rectify issues after the fact.”
Mr Harper said that this project offered a complex architectural challenge. “This stadium typology is complex – with sloping floors – and fitting accommodation into this was a complex challenge. If you don’t understand what’s happening in 3D errors can occur. Revit enabled the team to understand what the 3D complications were quickly and visually by talking things through in a 3D environment,” said Mr Harper.
Stuart Harper, Director at COX Architecture
As part of the goal to minimise environmental impact, COX were able to use 40% less steel in the construction of the stadium’s roof structure.
“Using Autodesk Revit and McNeel Rhino for 3D modelling reduced time, energy and cost, and helped enable us to create a design for the roof structure that used 40% less steel,” said Senior Architect and National BIM Coordinator at COX , Ashley Beckett.
“The team used parametric modelling techniques to analysis and optimise the steel roof structure, with integrated coordination with the structural engineering team. Some of the tools utilised to assist with this was McNeel Rhino with Grasshopper and Autodesk Revit and Dynamo,” said Mr Beckett.
Autodesk Construction Cloud helped enable the minimisation of waste with its analytics and seamless workflows, according to Mr Beckett.
To achieve the project’s objectives, COX needed a technology solution that would enable them to have common data environments, to work collaboratively across all studios, and to share, coordinate and communicate design.
According to Mr Beckett, “Even five or seven years ago, it was almost inconceivable for us to work collaboratively together in a live environment across cities and offices. Throughout this project, using tools including Autodesk Construction Cloud and the AEC Collection, we’ve been able to share in real time.”
Alex York, Senior Associate at COX, said, “At one time, there were 67 people working on the project at once. Autodesk is the only software that can do what we need to do architecturally; it is the leading cloud software. For this project, Autodesk Construction Cloud enabled us to collaborate fully, and for the consultants to input directly into the model.”
Autodesk is a part of the standard suite of tools the firm uses every day as part of their operations processes, enabling them to address complex design projects and collaborate from a single source of truth. Autodesk enables easy access to common data environments, collaborative working across all their studios, and the ability to share, coordinate and communicate complex designs.
The design solutions utilised by COX for the Allianz Stadium project included Autodesk Construction Cloud for document management, design collaboration and model coordination; and AEC Collections including Revit and AutoCAD, Recap Pro, BIM Collaborate Pro and Navisworks, among other systems.
Mr Harper said the technology is still evolving. “It takes a significant project like this to push up against the boundaries of what’s possible. We reached some friction points with the technology, which we’ve worked on alongside the Autodesk team who have been very collaborative and supportive.”