Football stadium: An energy-efficient building and a source of renewable energy for the community

Abstract

The stadium is associated with football, and football cannot exist without an arena in which to compete. However, the sports complex, which hosts sports competition some days of the week, has the opportunity to grow and fulfil much more than the mere role of hosting football games. In this article, we shall analyse the potential of these spaces to become true multi-symbol buildings through the impact they have on a community, focusing in particular on the energy-efficient aspects of such buildings which can be sources of renewable energy for the community. Starting from examples of sports arenas that can fit into this category (like Kaohsiung stadium in Taiwan), we shall present a multitude of solutions that can be used to improve both the built space as felt by the football supporter and the livelihood of the community through the capabilities of this architectural object to produce renewable energy. Making mammoth, energy-fuelled constructions that meet only one criterion is an outdated concept; a contemporary building should be a multifunctional, community-oriented building. Besides fulfilling specific functional requirements, the role of a symbol architectural building (the author of this paper considers that the stadium falls into this category) is to transmit a strong signal locally, nationally and internationally. In the current context of energy production and energy efficiency of buildings, stadiums become forefront promoters of such ideas inside a community.