The official Overlay and Temporary Structures Provider to Glasgow 2014 has revealed that it is working closely with the Organising Committee to design and install more than 230 structures covering an area exceeding 20,800 m2.

As Glasgow 2014’s Exclusive Temporary Seating Provider, the Arena Seating team has been tasked with delivering every single temporary seat at the Games, around 22,000 in total across 10 venues. The seating team will also be installing camera platforms, wheelchair access platforms, press positions and commentator platforms.

Dave Withey, sales and marketing director, Arena UK & Europe, said “We’ve been collaborating closely with the Glasgow 2014 overlay team to design temporary solutions which make the most of each venue, providing the space and infrastructure they require, without permanent construction.”

The temporary infrastructure project that will be finished first is the official merchandise shop in a Glasgow City Centre location. Arena Group will start building this at the beginning of June.

At the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome, Arena Group will be supplementing the existing 2,000 seats within the venue with an additional 1,700.  Arena Group will face the challenge of creating perfect sight lines for a challenging sloped field of play, using its trademark "clearview" system.

Contours will also be a challenge at the new Cathkin Braes Mountain Bike Trails venue, where Arena Group will be providing VIP seating at the finish line and structures for athletes, officials and security, all designed to fit against the slopes of Cathkin Braes and provide stunning views of the city. 

The clearview system will also be deployed at the Kelvingrove Lawn Bowls Centre, where Arena Group will create a temporary seating stadium and Arena Structures will provide the press, sponsor, security and doping tents.

At the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre Precinct (SECC) Arena Group will work with the venue and Glasgow 2014 supplying the seats for Gymnastics, Boxing, Judo, Netball, Wrestling and Weightlifting/Powerlifting.

On the East coast, Arena Group is solely responsible for all temporary seating and structures at the Barry Buddon Shooting Range. Edinburgh’s Royal Commonwealth Pool, built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games, will be kitted out with structures for the security, athletes and officials. 

Scotstoun Sports Campus will host both the Squash and Table Tennis competitions, with Arena Group providing structures to the venue and seating stands for the table tennis and existing squash courts.

Arena Group will also create temporary grandstands across three courts at the new Glasgow National Hockey Centre and provide grandstands and all supporting tentage for the triathlon events at Strathclyde Loch. 

For Glasgow’s Tollcross Swimming Pool, Arena Group has created a bespoke temporary seating system carefully designed to the fit the confines of the venue’s mezzanine level.

“We have a strong legacy of working within the city and neighbouring Edinburgh, and know many of the venues extremely well, such as the SECC where we have a relationship spanning over 20 years. This knowledge and experience has been extremely useful, enabling us to deliver designs quickly and to spec,” said Withey.

“These designs are now almost finalised and we’re looking forward to being back in Glasgow to start the installation. We’re one step closer to helping deliver one of the best Commonwealth Games in history.”

At the recent Olympic Winter Games in Sochi, the opening and closing ceremonies dazzled audiences around the world. Spectacular, theatrical and hugely sophisticated, they exemplified the fact that, although a competition may have several venues, the main stadium remains the focal point of every major event. But how can a stadium meet the huge technical demands of these events, and their capacity criteria, while still being able to adapt for a long-term legacy once the main event has finished?

The solution lies in the integration of the permanent and temporary. It’s only by including temporary structures and seating in the initial design that buildings gain the flexibility they need to adapt to a changing set of needs. In Sochi, for example, we incorporated temporary seating that will allow the Olympic Stadium to expand to accommodate the 45,000 seats required for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, before reducing to a final legacy capacity of 25,000 for the local football team.

Similarly, the Incheon Stadium, which will host the 2014 Asian Games, is a 70,000 seat stadium that will reduce to 30,000 seats, thanks to our design that has one permanent seating stand and three temporary ones, destined to become park landscaping for the city’s residents and visitors to enjoy once the temporary structures are removed.

This flexible approach has its roots in Populous’ design for Sydney’s Olympic Stadium, now the ANZ stadium, where an initial capacity of 110,000 seats was reduced to 83,000 after the Games by removing the end stands and reconfiguring the roof. By the London Olympics in 2012, our thinking had evolved to focus on design as a whole, rather than construction. We broke the Stadium down into its constituent parts to explore how a building could be planned from the outset to transform itself and be fit for a long-term legacy – and the result is a multi-purpose Stadium of 60,000 seats (reduced from an Olympic capacity of 80,000) that is capable of hosting IRB World Cup Rugby and Premier League football as well as concerts and other events.

Designing in this way has inherent challenges: namely, ensuring that at each stage of its evolution the building has architectural merit – during the event itself, when the focus of the world’s media is on the stadium; and afterwards, when visitors and residents must appreciate and use it as part of the city’s fabric. In addition, although the end goal of the design is the same – to reduce in scale after the main event – this can’t be achieved by a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Each stadium has unique requirements and these must be reflected in innovative design solutions.

At Populous, our understanding of a stadium’s cultural significance means that we’re constantly devising innovative ways to balance the cultural and technical needs of the main event with the social responsibility of designing buildings that have a long-term legacy. It’s a journey that, for us, began in Sydney in 2000 and will, we are sure, continue to challenge and fascinate far into this century and beyond.

This article was written by Populous principals Ben Vickery and Tom Jones

Delays and uncertainty over World Cup stadiums have motivated FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke to make a special visit to Rio de Janeiro  from 24 to 27 March, bringing an early end to a technical tour of host cities that began on Thursday 20 March.

“Any envisaged on-site host city visits will be rescheduled to the next tour planned for the end of April,” said FIFA in a statement. 

Concerned about overlay projects and three unfinished stadiums, Valcke is travelling to Rio de Janeiro for a series of meetings. The visit culminates in a board meeting of the Local Organising Committee (LOC) and media briefing at the Maracana Stadium.

“This is the last occasion for the organizers to take stock of the operational preparations before the respective FIFA World Cup installations begin to be implemented in all 12 host cities,” said FIFA.

The LOC is currently taking FIFA’s technical experts on a tour of stadiums in Sao Paulo, Porto Alegre, Curitiba, Cuiaba, Manaus and Natal – the six venues that did not feature in last year’s Confederations Cup. The tour was due to conclude in Natal on 26th March after a visit to Manaus on 24th March, but these two site visits now look set to be postponed to April.

“This inspection tour will be fundamental to consolidate operational plans and for each area to confirm the operations they have planned over the last few years,” said LOC Stadiums Operations Manager Tiago Paes.

The tour involves LOC and FIFA representatives from the areas of competition, press operations, broadcasting, protocol, communications, IT, spectator services, security, medical services, transport, catering, volunteers, hospitality and stadiums operations.

FIFA had originally requested that all venues be finished by December 2013, but three remain under construction. Itaquerao stadium in Sao Paulo and Curitiba's Arena da Baixada are now unlikely to be finished until the middle of May – just a month before the opening match in Sao Paulo. Cuaiba’s Arena Pantanal is due to open in April. 

The pitch at Manaus is also undergoing emergency repairs after the turf was damaged by excessive use of fertilizer. Manaus hosts England and Italy’s first World Cup fixture.

Valcke has reportedly voiced concerns about responsibility for temporary infrastructure. Local newspaper Estado de Sao Paulo said Valcke is concerned that some cities are refusing to pay for temporary items such as security equipment and temporary structures for media, volunteers and sponsors, causing delays to overlay works.

Glasgow 2014 has marked the milestone of 100 days to go until the start of the Commonwealth Games by painting a giant “100” on the pitch of Hampden Park stadium.

Scotland’s national football stadium is in the process of being transformed into an athletics venue for the duration of the Games. Arial footage released today shows that the venue’s transformation is virtually complete. 

To attain the width required for the track and field events, as specified by IAAF standards, the ground had to be raised by almost 1.9m using a revolutionary technique. A deck weighing over 1,000 tonnes was made using 6,000 steel posts and 1,200 panels. A further 16,000 tonnes of stone, tar and rubber are now being placed on top of the deck. 

Hampden will be the centrepiece of the Games, with more than a thousand athletes competing in more than 48 events in seven days of competition. The venue will also host the closing ceremony, when Glasgow 2014 will hand the Commonwealth flag over to the Gold Coast, hosts of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. 

The new aerial shot also shows Lesser Hampden, which has had a new pavilion built to provide athletes with warm-up facilities.

 “It is now just 100 days to go until the start of the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games, the biggest sporting and cultural festival Scotland has ever hosted and the UK’s next big sporting occasion,” said Lord Smith of Kelvin, KT, Chairman of Glasgow 2014.

“We are entering the home straight now and these last 100 days are our opportunity to do the final work necessary to ensure that we deliver an outstanding Games for Glasgow, Scotland and the Commonwealth.” 

Glasgow 2014, the XX Commonwealth Games, takes place from 23 July to 3 August when 4500 athletes will compete in 17 sports, with 1,000,000 tickets on sale. To find out more, read the exclusive interview with Chief Executive David Grevemberg in the next issue of HOST CITY magazine.

Theatre lovers in Bern are being offered something very special. Performances for the 2016 season take place not in the usual venerable municipal theatre, but in the middle of Bern's Old Town. NUSSLI has installed a temporary theatre cube, with a historical appearance, in record time on Waisenhausplatz. 

The theatre opened on March 19 with a programme of exciting, impassioned and fascinating performances that runs until October 2016. 

"If the restoration work at the municipal theatre is delayed again, we can easily leave the cube standing for another season during the winter or even adjust the building to changing needs at a later date," says NUSSLI Project Manager, Christian Frei. 

For a year and a half, Frei and his team worked on the development of the system with which the halls can be constructed within a very short time, even at the most unusual locations, in any size and with column-free spans of up to 40m. 

Efficient and Easy to Build 

Frei was often on site during construction on Waisenhausplatz and lent a hand time and again, because the assembly of the modular hall system is almost as thrilling as its unlimited applications. 

At the very beginning, the assembly crew installs the external structure with the flexible NUSSLI construction system. Then, they completely assemble the roof structure, including the sound and lighting fixtures, on the ground at a comfortable working height within the designated construction area. Finally, the entire roof structure is moved to its final height. 

This construction method reduces the required installation space to a minimum and enables installation even on sensitive ground while increasing the safety of the crew. All the streets around the cube on Bern's Waisenhausplatz were able to remain open to traffic throughout the construction, and the crane-free assembly did not stress the underlying parking garage structure in any way. 

Central Location Opens up Possibilities 

The idea of bringing the theatre cube to the audience instead of bringing the audience to an existing provisional arrangement opens up new possibilities for the Bern Theatre. 

The program was therefore put together with a conscious effort to include events which reflect the central position in the public square and appeal to various interests. So, a tango milonga, a public viewing of the European Football Championship and a James Bond evening are scheduled in addition to ballet, opera and drama. 

The modular hall system offers some important advantages, especially for construction projects in public places, on sensitive ground, or with limited access. The construction system requires no foundations, there is significantly less point loading than with construction using conventional steel supports, and the total load is evenly distributed over the entire ground surface. 

Because Waisenhausplatz sits directly atop a parking garage which is subject to special static requirements, there were no problems for the theatre cube despite its 1000sq m size and 200-ton weight. No heavy crane equipment is needed, especially for assembly work in modular hall system.

"We could have set the theatre cube up on the Pilatus or on a golf course," laughs Project Manager Frei. "That would work." 

Plan Today, Build Tomorrow 

The planning of the Bern Theatre cube with 480 seats, catering, backstage and technical areas as well as a cloakroom took less than a year. 

"A month after the first truck rolled out with its material, the cube was already cladded, equipped, and ready to go," recounts Christian Frei. 

He is looking forward to the reactions after the first performance, but adds quite calmly: "If the theatre organisation still wants modifications, it can be quickly and easily adjusted. The walls of the cube are also made of system material. They have just the exact thickness so that the entire installation can be accommodated in them and still remain easily accessible." 

Plans for the next projects with the modular hall system are already underway. Besides other theatre constructions, NUSSLI is planning a double-decker bridge for the IndyCar race in Boston in September. A bridge that has it all, because it crosses over the racetrack to the South Boston waterfront and will be equipped as a VIP lounge. 

The sophisticated structure consists entirely of system material. Therefore, it is possible to start construction one day after approval of the construction concept on the part of the client or the authorities - which is unparalleled.

This article was written by NUSSLI

Why is sustainability so important for major events?

Gary Meador (GM): Organising committees and bid cities are always weighing up the cost benefit of permanent versus temporary infrastructure; and creating a lasting legacy versus leaving things as the way you found them. A lot of the LOCs (local organising committees) are considering, along with the public consciousness, the most efficient and sustainable way to host major events, whether it is an international sporting event or music festival.

What a lot of the events are looking at now is they don’t necessarily need to build everything as a legacy. Not every city has the need for a permanent velodrome or a rowing venue. One of the things that Aggreko is really good at is working with customers to find innovative solutions to challenges around temporary power, air-conditioning and heating, or whatever their needs may be – to come in and help them make as little impact on the venue. At the end of the event we pick our stuff up and go away.

On the other hand, we also work with event organisers to help design what are meant to be legacy venues. We use our experience and key learnings during the planning phases, acting as a strategic partner as early as possible, to contribute to ideas on how infrastructure can be built or where it will have a fair use afterwards for example.

The benefit of adopting temporary power and cooling systems means you don’t have to build a venue to meet its peak requirements. You can build it to be somewhat less than that and supplement with on-site services to meet the additional capacity demand during the event.

For example, for a building that would normally seat 20,000 for a regular sporting event but has to seat 30,000 for a major event, you don’t have to put in an air-conditioning system that will cool 30,000 people, just one for 20,000 people that can be supplemented.

There’s all kinds of different ways we can work with LOCs to help them meet those goals.

You mentioned LOCs, do you work with them at this stage when they become an organising committee or is this something that potential event bidders can be thinking about earlier in the game?

GM: I think it’s definitely beneficial to think about sustainability earlier because a lot of people don’t have a great deal of experience with the temporary. Their only base of knowledge is working with a design-engineering firm, for example, that have only ever designed permanent structures. The earlier we can get involved the greater the opportunity is to improve efficiency and help create lasting benefits for the organising committees as they move forward.

It doesn’t have to be an organising committee, it could be the PGA of America, the US Golf Association or Formula 1, that’s just something we have developed a special niche for in the past 30 years.

Do you think that the rights holders and event organisers are fully aware of the possibilities of how solutions, like your temporary power solutions for instance, can make an event more sustainable?

GM: We are trying our level best to raise awareness of the benefits of temporary systems, but no I think that knowledge is still low. We have a lot of work to do moving in that direction. It’s not just our discipline; it’s the tent companies, the bleacher companies, the restroom trailer companies, everyone. We have mastered the ‘art of the temporary’ and either supplement or fully provide services for an event from start to finish but need to spread the word on the benefits of this approach.

Which particular events have you been working on recently to enable these sustainable solutions?

GM: We have supported quite a few major events on the world’s stage lately: the Ryder Cup in Minneapolis, Minnesota and the Trump inauguration in Washington DC. We didn’t have a huge amount of time to think about sustainable solutions for the inauguration as it comes together virtually in a week after the election, but at the Ryder Cup we were able to do some neat things.

We introduced some LED lighted balloons that replaced standard diesel-generated light towers. We took some of those to the site, plugged into the on-site power source we were already providing, and helped the PGA of America eliminate the need for 20 light towers they would have had to rent. I think this saved about 40,000 tonnes of carbon across the length of the job.

We are trying to find innovative ways to work with event organisers and help them to meet their sustainability goals too. We are looking at battery technology to come in and maybe take over a small load at night, so the generator can shut off and the load can run on battery. Then when the load grows larger than the battery system, the generators start back up during the day.

We are continuing to look at new innovations likes these to really help events lower their carbon profile and meet their sustainability goals as well as cost savings. We owe it to our customers to help them find better and economical ways to do things. That’s part of our mission.

Energy storage is becoming increasingly important for a whole range of industries, but you can see why in the major events sector…

GM: Yes, we are waiting for that magic battery to be built that makes it ultra-efficient to store this power too. The technology isn’t quite there on the batteries, but it’s getting better.

The events attract sports fans, families, partygoers, and even people who don't like winter sports at all. Cities can usher in the winter early with enormous Big Air ramps and ice tracks made of temporary structures – even at temperatures way above zero.

Building the perfect Crashed Ice track

The Olympic Park in Munich hosted the Ice Cross Downhill World Championship for the third time in January 2016. At 400m, the ice piste was the longest ever built. In addition, there was a height difference of 55m, challenging chicanes and obstacles – a real test of skill not just for the daring athletes but also for the builders of the ice channel.

Using system material, wooden ribs and planks, the NUSSLI project team built the substructure for the piste from the Olympic Mountain down to the Olympic Lake – but the track didn’t end there. 4,000 sq m of building area, the finish line, and the grandstands had to be constructed to stand in the water.

The team had already built the track in Lausanne two years ago, so they knew exactly what to pay attention to, in order to build the perfect ice channel. The most important thing for athletes – and therefore every track planner – is a track that is as smooth as possible.

To do this, the assembly team used bent wooden ribs that were cut precisely using a CNC (computer numeric control) machine, mounted on the track base, and then covered with wooden boards. This meticulous work, which was accurate to the inch, allowed the construction of a completely even run for high velocities.

A young sport with a fast-growing fan base

In winter 2001, daredevil athletes wearing ice skates raced down icy pistes in Stockholm for the very first time. Around hairpin bends, through steep passages, and over bumps, the ice skaters raced towards the finish line in groups of three or four along the run, which was up to 600 meters long.

Ever since, the event has offered the audience a great deal of action and an exciting spectacle. The athletes appear captivated by the thrill and the speed of this new type of sport, which is a combination of ice hockey, boardercross and inline downhill. The sport became so popular within such a short time that championships have been held annually since 2010.

A wintry carnival atmosphere

Events such as Crashed Ice Championships that usually offer additional entertainment programs consisting of parties and shows are very popular and attract a mixed audience. Their temporary nature also holds a certain appeal, and their location in the middle of the city allows visitors to attend without long travel times.

By bringing the magic of winter into the city, host cities can project an image of dynamism, without the need to be dedicated to a single type of event or to make long-term investments in buildings.

The first event doesn’t necessarily have to include a 400 meter ice channel. Big Air ramps for snowboarders and freeskiers are constantly being built in cities at unusual locations.

The best athletes of the snowboard and freeski scene, as well as the best BMX and FMX riders, meet up year after year at the Freestyle on the Landiwiese in Zurich,. Against the backdrop of Lake Zurich and in a location easily accessible both by public and private transportation, the freestyle event presented the biggest names for the Big Air ramp and the BMX/FMX scene. Via a lift, athletes reached the starting point at the top of the structure made of system material.

Big Air 2016 in Mönchengladbach

Big Air is a fitting name for something with a height of 35 m and a length of 77 m. NUSSLI had previously built the very same structure in Graz for the Nokia FIS World Cup on the roof of an underground parking garage, on the Erasmus Bridge in Rotterdam, in the Palau Sant Jordi arena in Barcelona, at Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, at the Kniaz Aleksander/Batenberg Square in the centre of Sofia and at Battersea Power Station in London.

However, these already impressive dimensions will be surpassed at Mönchengladbach in Germany. A 49 m high and 120 m long ski jump will be installed by NUSSLI for the event in December. 800 cubic m of snow will be necessary to prepare the Big Air ramp.

130 of the best international snow sports athletes have already confirmed their participation. This event is their ticket to qualifying for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. Of course, the party zone will also be a part of the event, where four DJs will be working up the crowd to a fever pitch as the athletes make their jumps and flips.

Temporary event and infrastructure design is increasingly becoming recognised as the most cost effective and sustainable solution for organising committees and venue managers planning to host major international sporting events.

As temporary systems become increasingly sophisticated and trusted to provide world-class competition standards, the methods of integration and appropriate use are continuously evolving to match the complexity of the design ambition. The flexibility capacity added to a venue, and the embodied efficiency of a tailored business solution, can lead to year-round use and increased profitability. As a result, the potential for temporary works should be considered in the first stages of any event bid planning process.

Legacy strategy

From the outset of the design process, we consider the way in which the venue will be used in future phases at the very heart of the project. Event design in this way can be considered the first stage of construction.

The legacy strategy guides how the temporary venue begins to take its place on site. Certain services such as technology spaces and broadcast facilities can be embedded entirely into the permanent infrastructure, while other components such as seating bowls and ground works can be partially retained to maintain future expansion capabilities. Other areas are configured using components such as tents, canopies, cabins and fences that can be removed in their entirety, packed up and used at another event.

Enhancing character

The first step in creating an appropriate design that perfectly suits the event is to consider all aspects of the character and spirit of the occasion, and to react to it with built forms that frame and enhance that character rather than imposing a design upon it. The result is designs which respond to the way in which the event is watched and experienced, and can help to enhance that feeling amongst the spectators.

At London 2012, loud music and constant cheering played a huge part in creating the atmosphere for a number of sports; in these venues we worked hard to bring the spectators as close to the action as possible so as to spur the athletes on.  By contrast, in other arenas silence was requested during the competition and applause came only on the completion of a performance. The explosive eruption of applause, within enclosed and intimate seating bowls following a tense silence, had a drama of its very own.

Of course, some sports had a completely unique character, such as the party nature of the beach volleyball tournament. At London 2012 and at Baku 2015, dancers would emerge between matches in cheerleader style and energise the audience. Though an elite sport was being played, putting on a spectacular show was also a key part of this event.

Invisible by design

The careful layout of each constituent element of the functional areas, their juxtapositions and arrangements, enables efficient venue operations and easy orientation.

A critical aspect of operational design is knowing and understanding how to separate the public-facing areas from the back of house facilities. Security systems, crowd management planning and all-accessible integration are crucial to the staging of any event, but each must be designed to integrate as seamlessly as possible, to have the smallest visual impact.

The most challenging, yet rewarding piece of our work, is to understand and choreograph all the thousands of moving elements into one organised celebration of sport, without anyone noticing all of the work behind the scenes.

Spectator experience

Naturally, different sports encourage different behaviors in spectator movement. From the arrival profile of fans, the frequency and method of occupying the spectator plazas, all the way through to the way they time their departure, successful temporary overlay design is all dependent on the nature of the event. In designing for and predicting spectator movements, we can collaborate with transport consultants early on in the process in order to use existing transport systems to their optimum level, and design to support it.

Although the same quality of experience is required in whichever location an event is being held, the way in which it is designed and operates can take on the flavour of its host country. In London 2012 the design of the Olympic Park areas were inspired by the theme of the English garden and street parties, with these iconic British community celebration motifs enlivening the spectator plazas. And as we saw recently in Rio, a carnival atmosphere influenced the entire Olympic and Paralympic event, informing all elements of the design and the event identity.

With the makeup and traditions of fans varying greatly across different sports, cultures and parts of the world, there is a fantastic opportunity for the host country to inject its own local flare, showcasing and making the most of local products, industry and youth programs.

Lasting influence

With the unanimous approval of Olympic Agenda 2020 in 2014, it is clear that the Olympic Movement is fully behind the considered use of existing and temporary venues wherever possible, with the goal of reducing costs, improving sustainability and allowing the hosting of global events to become accessible to a greater number of nations and communities.

This design approach is becoming increasingly desired for events at all levels, and the opportunities that event and overlay design affords for regeneration, activation and innovative design can have a lasting influence on everyone who is drawn together around these spectacular occasions.

Sooad Islam spoke at Host City 2016 on the panel "Making Event Infrastructure More Sustainable". Listen on audioBoom

If the Rio Olympics has shown us anything, it’s that visitors, guests and delegates are looking for fully immersive and inspiring ‘experiences’ – they’re no longer just interested in attending ‘events’. The London 2012 Games, where we had the honour of building the Athletes’ Dining Hall and the Olympic Hospitality Centre, inspired a generation of event professionals to deliver globally renowned experiences. The most recent games in Rio have only added to that desire.

Our job is to deliver thrilling event spaces, which give visitors a truly memorable experience that will stay with them for a very long time. This is certainly something we have enjoyed working on with our partners at some of the UK’s and Europe’s major events, ranging from the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, the Ryder Cup, Mobile World Congress, Barcelona Open Tennis and the opening of the APM Terminal Maasvlakte 2 in the Port of Rotterdam.

Awe-inspiring venues

The RHS Chelsea Flower Show is a major international event in the horticultural calendar, drawing 165,000 visitors over the course of the show. Every year 100 exhibitors from around the world create show-stopping displays in the Great Pavilion, the Show’s centrepiece built by De Boer – creating an unforgettable yet completely functional exhibition facility.

In 2000, we were tasked with creating a horticultural palace to replace the much-loved Great Marquee, which had been used at RHS Chelsea Flower Show since the 1950s and likely to be the biggest visual change in the Show’s history. In 2016, we celebrated our 16^th consecutive year supplying the Great Pavilion, which uses our iconic Delta structure to provide more space and light.

At its tallest, the Great Pavilion reaches 13 m high spanning the Royal Hospital’s obelisk. . The structure also uses state-of-the-art technology to ensure that floral exhibits stay at peak condition including 205 mesh roof panels and 5m ‘butcher’ doors to control air circulation and regulate inside humidity.

After winning the contract earlier in 2016, De Boer also created the Ranelagh Restaurant at RHS Chelsea Flower Show, providing 2,800 sq m of hospitality space using its signature Premier and Anova Vista structures. The Ranelagh Restaurant tapped into the traditional garden party experience and featured a decked terrace, allowing guests some respite from the Show whilst listening to music from the specially created bandstand in the Ranelagh Gardens.

Every element of the RHS Chelsea Flower Show from airy first impressions of the Great Pavilion; to the magnificent exhibits; and the garden party-inspired Ranelagh Restaurant, have all been designed to create an awe-inspiring experience for exhibitors and visitors.

At the heart of the action

The Ryder Cup, is one of the world’s largest sporting events and organised by PGA of America and Ryder Cup Europe, is described as ‘the greatest golf show on earth.’ In 2014, it was held at the Gleneagles resort in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. Organisers worked tirelessly alongside their suppliers, including De Boer, to ensure that participants and spectators enjoyed the ‘best ever staging of a Ryder Cup by media, public and organisers alike.’

De Boer supplied approximately 20,000 sq m of temporary accommodation including the Ryder Cup Tented Village, which housed retailers and food service outlets including the Champagne and Seafood Restaurant, the enormous Ryder Cup Striding Man Bar and various interactive facilities for visitors to get involved with. The Village was also divided into three distinct areas; the Public Catering Pavilion, Tay Club Hospitality Pavilion and the Merchandise Pavilion. All of the these structures were shoehorned into a space normally occupied by the Driving Range, so there was a very tight build schedule to adhere to in order to minimise the lost practice facility for golfers.

On the second hole, De Boer built a new structure especially for the event: the curved roof Anova Vista Double Decker, to house the Tweed Club hospitality pavilion. By using innovative curved roof technology, we created a 5m integrated canopy, which spanned the terrace overlooking the 2^nd hole from tee to green. Combining this with our ground floor structure, the Premier, this produced the ideal space for spectator sport. It doubled the usual capacity of the structure whilst ensuring unrestricted views, and catapulting guests into the heart of the action.

As a result of the impeccable planning from Ryder Cup organisers and their strong supplier bonds, a report from Sheffield Hallam University's Sport Industry Research Centre (SIRC) has since backed up claims of Scotland hosting the “best ever” Ryder Cup. The report found high levels of spectator satisfaction with their Ryder Cup experiences (92 per cent), with 71 per cent of those attending reporting their experiences as excellent.

Inspiring innovation

It is my belief that innovation lies at the heart of internationally acclaimed events and exhibitions and it is our responsibility, as suppliers, to constantly deliver creative and innovative solutions to enhance the user experience.

At the 2016 Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, one of the largest conventions in the world, we teamed up with the Congress organisers to provide absolutely perfect acoustics and mobile communications – an absolute expectation from exhibitors and guests. In addition, with seven different auditoria, each offering simultaneous presentations, it was essential that each one was soundproof.

Developed by De Boer’s Research and Development division alongside French specialists, we used an ‘Acoustic Barrier Mat’ system throughout the Congress to absorb sound. The Barrier Mat system prevents sound bouncing between hard surfaces and reduces sound reflection meaning that all our structures benefited from improved sound quality. Noise between interiors and exteriors was also heavily reduced, meaning that the seven auditoria benefited from more comfortable sound levels.

Exhilarating Experiences

Ultimately, it is the exhilarating experiences that guests will remember, like the spectacular automated show that launched the opening of the new APM Terminal Maasvlakte 2 in the Port of Rotterdam – the most advanced shipping terminal in the world.

Working alongside BIND, our team based in the Netherlands built a floating theatre for the opening. The robotic terminal was opened by King Willem-Alexandar and international guests were treated to an extraordinary show watched from the floating theatre that featured 16 large lit up video screens mounted on containers that moved through the terminal.

Similarly our Spanish team built a glamorous two storey structure to house the hospitality pavilion at the Real Club de Tennis Barcelona, Spain’s oldest tennis club, for the Barcelona Open Banc Sadadell championships. The ATP World Tour 500 clay-court tournament is one of the most important events in Spanish tennis and on the Barcelona social calendar.

De Boer designed the hospitality pavilion and splendid interiors for the upscale restaurant on the first floor and the village lounge on the ground floor, both with a sophisticated atmosphere that reflected the overall tone of the championships. Tennis fans enjoyed varied cuisine, glittering parties and concerts that lasted until dawn.

In today’s competitive events industry, only the very best events will stand out from the crowd and leave a lasting impression on visitors, organisers and exhibitors. It is our responsibility, as suppliers, to develop new innovative solutions that continue to enhance events and deliver world class experiences – it’s time to #getinspired.

The ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 in London took on special significance in 2016, with Andy and Jamie Murray creating tennis history by achieving World Number One rankings in singles and doubles.

Behind the scenes, UK-based Arena Group supported the event rights holder ATP and venue operator AEG to produce a new look for the tournament, having secured a three year contract with the ATP Tour.

After the 2015 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals, AEG informed the ATP that the space previously used for the Fan Zone was no longer available and conversations between the ATP and Arena Group began to redesign the event’s footprint. It was decided to relocate the Fan Zone inside the venue and move the players and sponsors facilities, including the practice courts and players restaurant, to a temporary facility adjacent to The O2.

Arena Group responded to this brief to create over 8,500sqm of temporary venues in keeping with the environment. The new I-Novation system was used to create a flat-roof structure for the VIP reception and security area.

“There was a lot of consultation, planning, investment, innovative engineering and creative thought behind this project and I think it has paid off with the best structure we’ve ever produced for an event,” says project manager Dan Bluff.

Using its I-Novation system, Arena Group designed and built a 40m x 50m structure with 13m high legs, giving the headroom the client requested and delivering a temporary venue with a permanent feel.

This external building mirrored the style of The O2 arena, forming an outer skin comfortably accommodating the players and sponsors’ facilities inside it, which were comprised of two 40m x 15m Arena triple-decker hospitality structures either side of a practice court.

Arena Interiors created well-appointed players’ lounges and bespoke sponsors’ hospitality suites, with Arena Group supplying event furniture from Spaceworks.

I-Novation’s improved insulation properties were appreciated in the November climate, as were Arena’s new wooden staircases and walling system, all of which contributed to the overall quality of the temporary venue.

Guests arrived through a VIP reception and a security area. These new structures were designed in line with the client’s wish to have a building that didn’t have an apex, to fit in with the local environment. Arena Structures’ in-house structural engineers adapted the company’s triple deck base system to create a flat roof venue covering a 250sqm area with no internal pillars.

The second practice court was housed within the O2 Arena’s Tensile Fabric Structure at the core of the relocated Fan Zone, alongside the double decker media facility.

Three broadcast studios were installed over the seating at one end of the O2 Arena. The event was broadcast to millions of viewers, who enjoyed a spectacular week of tennis culminating with Andy Murray being crowned both Barclays ATP World Tour Finals champion and the year-end world number one.

“The Barclays ATP World Tour Finals is the climax of the men’s professional tennis season. As such, we strive to deliver the best possible experience for all stakeholders at the tournament, whether that be the players, sponsors, media or fans,” says event director Adam Hogg.

“Working closely this year with AEG and Arena Group we were able to deliver a world-class event that provided all of these groups with an enhanced offering and a positive experience for their time at The O2.”