Timber WH-Arena and Timber Tower in Vienna

Nicolas Sterling from Sterling Presser Architects + Engineers has been kind enough to share one of his latest project done in Rhino/Grasshopper.

The Timber WH ARENA and Timber Tower design proposal for the WH-Arena competition in Vienna has made it to the second round.

The 20,000-seat WH-Arena timber concept is rooted in nature in symbiosis with its environment. The project vision is to create a new sustainable landmark for a large-scale arena that performs at all levels of efficiency and flexibility. The dialogue between the arena, the side buildings, and the public space creates a unique combination. The architectural objects play as much role as the outer space they generate. The timber structural moiré skin is acting as the tree skin. The building maximizes natural, beautiful, and warm materials that connect us with nature and envisions a sustainable future.

The arena roof, the shape of a shallow saddle, consists of a triangular grillage of timber strips structure as a Gridnet, a hybrid of a gridshell and a cablenet. This composite construction, which optimizes the use of material while minimizing embodied energy, while using a renewably sourced timber, creates a warm feel to the space with an enhanced acoustic performance. The roof spans about 160 m lengthwise and about 130 m crosswise. The roof has photovoltaic panels on its upper side and an uninterrupted continuously closed acoustic ceiling on its underside, which is partially translucent to give the interior of the arena a striking design effect.

The integrated architecture and facade structure follows a subtle distribution to create an optical effect as one moves around the building. The roof, the façade elements, and the timber gridshell are a unique parametric model to balance structural performance and aesthetic and visual effect.

The project is great teamwork in collaboration with:

• Thornton Tomasetti: Structure, facades, and acoustic
  
• A24 Landschaft: Landscape
• Transsolar: Energy, sustainability, environment design, MEP
• Kunz: Fire engineering
• Woo Architects: Arena experts
• Yann Kersalé. Lighting artist
• Ateliers de L’Éclairage: Lighting designer/engineers
• SOL: Renderings
• Xtrude.Berlin: 3D printing

Complete details...