Celebrating 30 years in 2018, Rod Laver Arena is one of the top three entertainment venues in the world by ticket sales, and sixth by attendance levels, averaging more than 200 event days annually.
Fulfilling the Victorian Government’s vision for Melbourne as a premier sporting and entertainment city, the core philosophy of the COX designed redevelopment was to thoughtfully upgrade the facility in a way that upholds its legacy while leveraging inherent assets.
The COX Design team applied four key design principles to the redevelopment.
The first embeds the arena within the precinct, opening connections to the wider ground-plane and surrounding parkland and open spaces.
The second elevates the back-of-house areas in a way that maintains and improves capacity in an ever-evolving major event landscape.
The third introduces the idea of new town squares, adding to public engagement and establishing the arena as a true place for the people.
The final principle ensures a contextual echoing of the original design, with curves begetting curves, ensuring new built elements enhance and uplift existing structures.
The project can be understood in two elements, the first an upgrade to existing arena facilities – the ‘apparatus’ of the place, the second encompassing public realm and new built additions.
The design addresses pragmatic requirements and delivers innovative, modern infrastructure while maintaining sensitivity to the precinct masterplan.
The seating bowl at the arena’s heart has been improved and enhanced, its capacity maximised and accessibility increased, which also allows greater stage width and flexibility.
Increasing the roof rigging load to 100 tonnes by utilising a new permanent truss vastly reduces time, cost, and visual impact on sightlines.
Extensive back-of-house modifications extended the loading dock to accommodate up to 21 semi-trailers simultaneously, ensuring the arena’s ability to attract the world’s biggest touring acts to Australia.
Designed to float above the pedestrian concourse, the new Eastern Annex delivers a dramatic new identity.
A sculpted, human-scaled pod links a new public entry and retail frontages to the perimeter of the existing building.
Above, the curved form constructed from steel frame, concrete and glass façade cladding contains new player/patron dining and lounge facilities.
Touching the existing structure lightly, its sculpted form is connected by bridges to the arena via a light-filled atrium space, allowing vertical circulation and natural light.
To create a continuous and appropriate architectural language across all built additions and achieve harmony with the original architecture, the idea of contemporary pod additions that ‘plug’ into the existing structure were incorporated.
The design of the pod and pavilion façades is distinctive, incorporating elements representing themes of context, climate and configurability.
With a high-performance stretched, clear double-glazed skin, the buildings are conceived as extruded prisms enveloped by a tautly stretched surface.
The overall design solution across the venue responds to and complements the surrounding parkland, and urban structures, integrating into its context and strengthening the precinct through enhanced infrastructure, technology, sustainability, variety and amenity, providing a venue that is exciting, visually appealing and inviting.
This COX designed upgrade received LEED Gold® Certification for sustainable building practices, use of materials, and technology.
The certification recognises the design measures taken to support the arena’s commitment to environmental responsibility.
These measures included macro site planning initiatives such as ensuring excellent connectivity to public transport and the incorporation of innovative wastewater technologies.
And more technical elements were deployed too, like the selection of roof materials that reflect heat rather than absorbing and re-radiating it, therefore reducing the urban heat island effect.
From its inception, the COX design team embedded Environmentally Sustainable Design (ESD) principles throughout the design.
Their efforts ensured that sustainability was prioritised and retained to achieve this outstanding result within a context of existing thirty-year-old building fabric, dated services, and a vast internal volume.
The venue is also committed to improving guest experience through environmental stewardship using LEED, and achieved certification by implementing specific initiatives and sustainability metrics that include:
- 9% total energy cost saving
- 7% reduction in gas usage
- 20% reduction in water usage, including an 81.83 percent reduction in potable water usage.
- 87% of all non-hazardous construction and demolition debris has been diverted away from landfill
- Low VOC emitting materials throughout the facility
- 25% reduction (or 2100 fewer tons) of annual carbon emissions
- Design included increased numbers of thermal zones to allow for maximising controllability and thermal comfort.
- Ventilation rates were increased to provide enhanced interior air quality and the building incorporates airflow monitors and CO2 sensors.
- The stadium is 100 percent smoke-free.
- Car park ventilation is designed to be triggered by the CO2 monitors so it runs only when required.
- Improvements to the air conditioning system were introduced that enable the system to be scaled in intensity depending on the occupation levels, reducing electricity usage of both fans and cooling plant.
Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) is an internationally recognised green building certification system.
It provides third-party verification that a building or community was designed and built using strategies aimed at improving performance across all the metrics that matter including:
- energy savings
- water efficiency
- CO2 emissions reduction
- improved indoor environmental quality
- stewardship of resources and sensitivity to their impacts
Developed by the USGBC (U.S. Green Building Council), LEED provides building owners and operators a framework for identifying and implementing practical and measurable green building design, construction, operations and maintenance solutions.
The system uses a points system to score a building’s sustainability across five basic categories: Sustainable Sites, Water Efficiency, Energy and Atmosphere, Materials and Resources, and Indoor Environmental Quality.
Buildings are awarded points based on the extent various sustainable strategies are achieved.
LEED certification enhances a facility’s image and establishes it as an exemplar of sustainable design and construction. Green buildings also cost less to operate.
They use fewer resources such as water and energy, and generate less waste, leading to decreased ongoing utility costs.
Green buildings also support healthier indoor spaces. Benchmarks such as thermal comfort, indoor air quality, and interior lighting support the comfort and health of building occupants.
LEED certified buildings reduce stress on the environment.
They are more energy and resource-efficient. They generate less waste and lower the use of energy, water, and other resources.
Project Details
Project Size – 55,000 m2
Project Budget – $338,000,000
Completion Date – 2019
Project Details
Project Team
Lead Architects
Cox Architecture
COX is a design-focused contemporary architectural practice with Studios located in every major Australian city and a history spanning more than 60 years.
Their design ethos underpins every project.
Key to this is supporting the public life of our cities.
COX endeavour to do this by ensuring every project makes a positive contribution to the public realm – that it gives more than it takes.
Photography
Peter Clarke
Peter works with a diverse range of clients including architects, design practices, government bodies, listed companies, and publishers.
Photo Gallery
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Design © 2021 Cox Architecture. All Rights Reserved.| Images © 2021 Peter Clarke. All Rights Reserved.
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