Wooden football stadium receives green light

Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) has won permission for the world's first timber football football stadium in Gloucestershire.

Forest Green Rovers Football Club's 5,000 capacity wooden stadium was approved by Stroud District Council's planning committee in December 2019. The same committee had initially refused the plans back in June 2019, citing noise, traffic and impact on the environment. The proposals were subsequently revised.

Changes include swapping one grass pitch to an all-weather pitch with access to local clubs, a revised landscaping strategy, increased matchday transport and clarifications regarding noise.

The application also includes landscaped parking and two pitches, one a 4G playing surface with access for the local community.

Club chairman Dale Vince said: "It is still going to take several years. I think it is going to take us a year of detailed design work. This is an outline planning application. The best case is three years if we started tomorrow."

Forest Green Rovers is sponsored by green energy provider Ecotricity and has made a commitment to environmentalism. Last month, the club even announced that it would switch its players to bamboo shin pads to reduce its reliance on plastic.

_{Image source: Zaha Hadid Architects
Article source: Architects' Journal}