Cheering on a Commonwealth Games legacy
Long after the medals have been tallied, the Commonwealth Games sporting infrastructure will remain. Sporting venues can deliver enduring community value, says Cox Architecture’s Richard Coulson.
Cities invest billions of dollars into hosting major sporting events with the hopes of gaining infrastructure that lasts a lifetime. But expensive and neglected stadiums have become unwanted symbols of these events
Take the state-of-the-art facilities in Athens, which played host to the 2004 Summer Olympics, and which now lie abandoned and overrun with weeds. Or the $5 million arena in Brazil’s capital, Brasilia, which is the most expensive World Cup stadium in history and is now used as a parking lot for buses.
The 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games is no exception. The Games were secured with the knowledge that large international events can cripple cities and leave long trails of debt.
“Designing sporting venues requires careful consideration of the enduring objective – which is to deliver an unparalleled sporting atmosphere, while also providing value and ongoing community benefit,” says Coulson, a director with Cox Architecture.
Cox Architecture designed two venues for the 2018 Games: the Anna Meares Velodrome and the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre, dubbed the Optus Aquatic Centre for the duration of the Games.
The Anna Meares Velodrome is situated in Brisbane’s Sleeman Sports Complex, which featured an outdated concrete Velodrome from the 1982 Commonwealth Games.
Cox designed the new Velodrome to meet contemporary international standard cycling lengths and technologies, Coulson explains.
“World class velodromes now have timber tracks and are enclosed stadia to protect the track, allowing all weather riding and control of additional climatic conditions including wind and light.
“The track itself is an amazing piece of joinery,” he adds.
The stadium features 1,0 permanent seats, based on the relatively modest requirement for spectator seating for national events, but can accommodate an additional 2,0 “bump-in” seats along the track to suit the requirements of the Commonwealth Games.
Coulson says the stadium offers a diverse range of facilities that provide ongoing community legacy benefit which “means it has a genuine post-Games life”.
“It can operate as a competition or training track, and includes a public gym and hirable function space. The infield is used for court sports like futsal and school physical education, with operable nets separating this space from the track. The concourses are used for yoga and Pilates, and the kiosk and public amenities can serve both the Velodrome and adjacent BMX track.”
While ensuring the Velodrome’s longevity meant enclosing and preserving the track indoors, the reverse was true for the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre.
“We decided to bring the main pools outdoors to enhance the usability, sustainability and general enjoyment of the outdoor venue,” Coulson explains.
Adaptability was the key element of the project, as the venue needed to accommodate 10,000 seats during the Games, but just 1,000 seats post-Games.
“The Aquatic Centre plays host to a range of high performance swimmers and divers, but also receives almost water park-like unbridled enthusiasm from locals”. In fact, more than half a million people visit the facility each year, according to some reports.
Coulson says the Games can have a “catalysing effect” on the Gold Coast, in much the way the 1982 Brisbane Commonwealth Games marked a “turning point in the city’s maturity”.
“Thirty-six years on, the sports remain largely the same but the infrastructure and strategy behind the infrastructure could not be more different.
“Today, our focus is on designing versatile, functional stadia that serve multiple groups, purposes, and most importantly, their local communities.”
All images are credit to Christopher Frederick Jones