Biele­feld Outdoor Arena (Rußheide Stadium District Sports Complex)

The Biele­feld Outdoor Sports Hall was built at the Rußheide Stadium district sports complex. It provides a roof over an exis­ting synthetic turf playing field, inclu­ding the adja­cent long jump faci­lity. The project was commis­sioned by the Stadt­sport­bund Biele­feld e. V., and the faci­lity was built in close colla­bo­ra­tion with the City of Bielefeld’s Sports Depart­ment. The goal was to create a weather-inde­pen­dent sports area without funda­men­tally restruc­tu­ring the exis­ting sports faci­lity.

Instead of cons­truc­ting a new buil­ding on open land, the concept consis­t­ently focuses on further deve­lo­ping exis­ting infra­struc­ture. The playing field will be preserved, but the roof will make it usable year-round. This creates addi­tional trai­ning space without sealing new areas or buil­ding exten­sive new sports faci­li­ties.

SMC2 Sport und Frei­zeit Bau is respon­sible for the design and cons­truc­tion of the Biele­feld outdoor arena.

The struc­tural frame­work of the Biele­feld Open-Air Hall combines glued-lami­nated timber with hot-dip galva­nized steel compon­ents. While the steel allows for the neces­sary spans, the wood creates a warm, natural atmo­sphere and offers struc­tural advan­tages at the same time.

Because it retains very little heat, the struc­tural frame­work hardly heats up even in the summer, thereby helping to create a plea­sant micro­cli­mate under the roof. At the same time, glued-lami­nated timber offers impres­sive dura­bi­lity and a good carbon foot­print.

The long-jump faci­lity located imme­dia­tely adja­cent to the site presented a parti­cular design chall­enge. Rather than dismant­ling it or rest­ric­ting its use, the struc­tural system was desi­gned so that the runways are spanned by a lattice girder. This made it possible to avoid instal­ling addi­tional inte­rior columns within the track area.

The roof drai­nage system was also adapted to the exis­ting condi­tions. Because of the south-sloping, asym­me­trical single-slope roof, no addi­tional drai­nage measures were required in the nort­hern section. This made it possible to retain both the exis­ting run-off chan­nels and signi­fi­cant portions of the exis­ting infra­struc­ture.

The mono­pitch roof was desi­gned from the outset to accom­mo­date a full-surface photo­vol­taic system. Once the PV system is completed, the open-air hall is expected to gene­rate more energy than it consumes and thus operate as an energy-plus buil­ding.

To mini­mize earthwork as much as possible, the Biele­feld Outdoor Arena was built on screw pile foun­da­tions. This foun­da­tion system requires virtually no concrete and signi­fi­cantly reduces both earthwork and cons­truc­tion time. At the same time, the exis­ting synthetic playing surface remains virtually untouched.

The faci­lity is comple­mented by a peri­meter fence around the playing field with a ball-catch net and inte­grated LED lighting, allo­wing the gym to be used even in the evening hours. As part of the cons­truc­tion project, the playing field and long-jump area were also reno­vated.

What We Learn Here

The Biele­feld Open-Air Arena serves as a prime example of how the perfor­mance of exis­ting sports faci­li­ties can often be signi­fi­cantly improved without having to build an enti­rely new faci­lity. By enclo­sing an exis­ting synthetic turf field, preser­ving the long-jump faci­lity, and mini­mi­zing altera­tions to the exis­ting struc­ture, a sports faci­lity usable year-round was created with compa­ra­tively low resource consump­tion.

The open-air hall not only provides addi­tional trai­ning capa­city, but also demons­trates how exis­ting faci­li­ties can be intel­li­gently upgraded.