Covered seating area plays a pivotal role in a university's upgrade strategy

The brief

Durham University had recently identified their Maiden Castle sports hub – home to FA Women’s Championship side, Durham Women FC – as a prime site in their 20-year university upgrade strategy and came to us wanting to enhance the spectator experience. Providing a covered seating area for a minimum of 500 spectators, including a press area, was a requirement for compliance with FA Ground Grading Guidelines.

The response

We immediately realised that creating a covered seating area to provide shelter from the elements would be a top priority on this notoriously exposed site.

And so, working closely with the university’s renowned sports team, we created a generous 42m long, by 5m deep canopy running immediately adjacent to the Sports Centre.

The roof of the football canopy structure was covered in 16mm triple wall polycarbonate to make the shelter 100% waterproof, while the generous dimensions helped shield spectators from driving rain or wind. As well as being waterproof, the new shelter also protects spectators from harmful UV rays, fulfilling the brief of enhancing spectator experience year-round.

The wow

The expansive new covered seating area was designed, manufactured and part pre-fabricated at our West Sussex site allowing it to be shipped as a kit of parts.

This not only significantly reduced the carbon footprint of the project – something that was important to the university – but it also allowed for rapid onsite assembly meaning minimal disruption to the university’s busy fixtures calendar.

Return