Copenhagen’s new €134 million Royal Arena has officially opened with a sell-out concert by legendary band Metallica.

Located in Ørestaden and near to Copenhagen Airport, the Royal Arena has a capacity of 12,500 people at sporting events, the same amount for theatre-style conference settings and 16,000 concert guests. It is also adjustable to create a smaller arena down to 3,500 people and expects between 60-80 event days per year.

Copenhagen Lord Mayor Frank Jensen said: “I’m pleased that the Danish capital is to have an arena so that Copenhagen can hold its own against cities such as London, Berlin, Stockholm and Hamburg. It will give space for many exciting events for Copenhageners and guests.

“The arena will also attract growth to Copenhagen and the greater Copenhagen region as well as even more investment in Orestad.”

Following Metallica’s debut performance, acts like The Weeknd, Rod Stewart, John Mayer and Cirque du Soleil are scheduled for 2017. The venue’s first major sporting event, the European Short Course Swimming Championships, will take place in December this year.

The European Short Course Championships will see 800 contestants from 40 different countries and an expected audience of 30,000 during the five days of the championship. The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship 2018 has also chosen the Royal Arena as its venue.

Carl Christian Ebbesen, major of Culture & Leisure, Copenhagen, added: “The Royal Arena has given us the opportunity to bid on culture and sports events, that we previously lacked the right physical space to host.

“I am pleased that we could get a major event, such as the European Swimming Championships to Copenhagen. Now we can show the rest of the world, what Denmark really has to offer.”
 

UK-based power generation company Aggreko plc announced on 26^th January that it will join Shell and Vitol as sponsors of the UK Pavilion at Expo 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Under the theme of Future Energy, Expo 2017 will bring together representation from more than 100 countries, along with international organisations and the private sector to demonstrate the latest developments in renewable energy and sustainable society.

“Kazakhstan is a strategic growth market for Aggreko so Expo 2017 is a great opportunity to showcase our expertise within a truly international event focused on the development of future energy solutions. Our innovative power generation systems are a great enabler to support the evolution towards a more diverse and sustainable energy generation mix,” said Chris Weston, Chief Executive, Aggreko plc.

Department for International Trade Minister, Greg Hands, said: “The UK has the expertise to lead the way in securing stable, cleaner future energy supplies. The UK Pavilion at Astana Expo 2017 will help demonstrate that leadership and as an internationally recognised innovator with strong ties to the region, Aggreko is an ideal sponsor to help make this happen.”

Aggreko’s range of power generation applications helps to facilitate a smoother transition towards increased renewable penetration in national grid networks. This includes balancing renewables via flexible, mobile generation to supplement renewable generation, the commissioning of large scale renewables projects, generating power from flare-gas and providing power through solar hybrid technology.  

Expo 2017 takes place between June 10 and September 10.

The French port city of Marseille hosted the Red Bull Crashed Ice speed skating event on January 14 and 15, 2017.

Nüssli rose to the challenge of creating Crashed Ice race track in the middle of the city, drawing on their experience of having delivered tracks for the event in Munich and Lausanne.

The race began with four skaters on the track, which began at the terrace of the Intercontinental hotel and finished in front of the Marseille City Hall.

The aim is to compete with the other skaters with the greatest speed, and finish the extreme track with sharp turns, high vertical drops, and other hazards as quick as possible. The athletes make daredevil jumps and reach speeds of up to 80 km/h.

Nüssli was commissioned for the construction of a 340 m long ramp, which included elevation differences of up to 26 m, as well as the assembly of four lighting towers, a podium, and nine television platforms.

Assembling the structure in the middle of the city was often complicated in terms of loading and unloading, Nüssli said.

View the event Movie on Red Bull TV.

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.

Temporary power provider Aggreko has been awarded the contract to deliver electricity to the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang.

The deal is valued at approximately US$40m and Aggreko will also have sponsorship of the Games.

The company will generate electricity for all 15 competition venues in the mountainous resort county of PyeongChang.

Aggreko will also power three competition venues in the coastal city of Gangneung, where figure skating, curling, ice hockey, speed and short-track skating events will take place.

The International Broadcast Centre in PyeongChang will also be powered by Aggreko.

"I am delighted that Aggreko has been appointed the official power provider for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018,” said Chris Weston, chief executive officer of Aggreko.

“We look forward to helping the organising committee deliver another successful Games."

A major part of the company’s business is providing power and temperature control solutions for sports events, such as the Olympic Games, cricket, football and rugby world cups, Pan American/Parapan American Games, PGA Tour, Tour de France, Ryder Cup,Red Bull Air Race and Formula One.

In August 2016 Aggreko announced that it had won the contract to provide power for the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, having powered the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, where the company has its headquarters.

Aggreko also has a long track record of providing power to entertainment shows, such as I’m a Celebrity, Cirque du Soleil and music festivals including Glastonbury, as well as high profile events like the US Presidential Inauguration.

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.”

The International Olympic Committee (IOC)’s Executive Board (EB) today approved the venues for the five sports - baseball/softball, karate, skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing – that had events approved during the IOC session in Rio de Janeiro this year for the Tokyo 2020 programme only.

These additional events were proposed by the Tokyo 2020 Organising Committee using the new flexibility given by Olympic Agenda 2020 for host cities to propose events only for their edition of the Games.

The IOC EB agreed to the following venue proposals from the Tokyo 2020 organisers:

The baseball/softball competitions will be held in the Yokohama Stadium (Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture), which is one of Japan’s best-loved baseball venues.

Karate will take place at the Nippon Budokan (Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo), which is already hosting judo in 2020 and, as Japan’s mecca for martial arts, is a legacy venue from the 1964 Games.

Skateboarding and sport climbing will be hosted at the Aomi Urban Sports Venue, which will be a dynamic and innovative temporary facility situated in a spectacular location with Tokyo Bay as a backdrop.

Finally, surfing competitions will be located on Tsurigasaki Beach, which is situated at the southern end of the Kujukuri Beach in Chiba prefecture. The beach is a popular surfing destination and has hosted a number of international and national surfing competitions.

This brings the total number of venues for the Tokyo 2020 Games to 39, including 8 new permanent venues, 22 existing sites and 9 temporary venues, most of which are located in two zones of the city -the Heritage Zone and the Tokyo Bay Zone. These two zones will offer a unique look at Tokyo and Japan to spectators attending the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.

In addition to updating the EB on operational matters and the new venues, the Tokyo delegation also spoke about the success of their participation in the Olympic Games Rio 2016, with 300 staff taking part in the observer programmes run by the IOC and IPC; Japan House with its 82,000 visitors; and an acclaimed handover segment. The homecoming parade of Japan’s 87 Rio medallists was also seen by a record 800,000 people on the streets of Tokyo, which underlined further the support of the Japanese people for the Games.

The Rio 2016 Organising Committee made its first presentation to the IOC EB since the “Marvellous Games” came to a close this August. In particular, they spoke about the legacy of the Games with 200,000 passengers per day now using Metro Line 4 and 450,000 being carried on the three new BRT lines built using the Games as a catalyst. In addition, according to reports published after the Games, Rio 2016 also delivered an economic impact of USD 21.66 billion, created 1.79 million jobs and had an important tourism impact with 1.2 million visitors during the Rio Olympic Games, who spent USD 304.1 million.

With 428 days to go until the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, the President of the PyeongChang 2018 Organising Committee (POCOG), Hee-beom Lee, presented the status of Games preparations in the next Olympic host city. President Lee reported about the large number of activities taking place in PyeongChang this winter, including the World Press Briefing, the World Broadcaster Meeting, the Chef de Mission meeting, the One-Year-to-Go celebrations, the numerous visits by the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) and International Federations (IFs), and the 24 test events that will see some of the world’s best winter athletes take to the snow and ice already this season in the Republic of Korea.

Finally, Beijing 2022 gave an impressive report on their progress, as the Organising Committee takes shape with 176 staff now in place - 50 of whom participated in the Rio 2016 Observer Programme. The Committee underlined the efforts being made to develop winter sports in China and promote the Games. One example of this promotion was the figure shared by the Beijing organisers that last winter, the number of residents practising winter sports in Beijing and Zhangjiakou alone increased by over 30%, reaching 6.8 million people.

Source: International Olympic Committee

A geothermal power plant in the south Bavarian region of Laufzorn has been supplying homes, businesses, schools and kindergartens in the municipality of Grünwald with renewable thermal energy since October 2011. An indoor swimming pool was added to the Grünwald leisure park in December 2012, followed by a heatable synthetic hockey pitch from Polytan in September 2015.

What's remarkable here is the fact that the swimming pool is heated by the return flow of the 120°C geothermal water from Laufzorn and it is actually possible to supply half the heating for the hockey turf from the "return flow of the return flow".

Located to the south of Munich, the Grünwald leisure park is set in rambling grounds dotted with trees and extends over an area of 120,000 m². The wide range of sport and leisure facilities is suitable for young and old, elite and amateur athletes alike. And the site is steeped in history for football fans: Sepp Herberger coached the winners of the 1954 World Cup in Sportschule Grünwald, which was founded in 1950.

This modern facility has had a synthetic pitch since 1992. It underwent extensive renovation in 2003, but was again showing signs of age twelve years later.

"The surface of the pitch had been badly affected by heavy use and frequent snow shovelling in winter," says Jörn Verleger, the manager of Grünwald leisure park.

"During renovation work, the municipality of Grünwald, which owns the facility, decided not only to install a turf heating system, but also to replace the dilapidated hockey hut with a modern new building, complete with an area for spectators and public toilets."

The 100 x 66 m synthetic playing field was mainly used by the members of the hockey and football sections of TSV Grünwald sports club – and if additional leasing to other private teams is taken into account, the pitch is used for more than 1,400 hours every year.

Such intensive use calls for a high-quality and hardwearing synthetic turf system. The local authority opted for a Poligras Mega CoolPlus, an unfilled professional hockey turf from Polytan whose compact and even surface is conducive to fast and accurate play. The heating system beneath the synthetic turf comes from AST Eis- u. Solartechnik.

A brine-conducted heating system has been installed and functions extremely efficiently owing to its low flow temperature (approx. 24°C), quick response times and a 50% reduction in thermal heat loss. The high efficiency can be attributed to the AST heating mats, which are located directly underneath the elastic layer. Similar commercially available piping systems are located around 100 mm deeper in the ground and therefore have considerably higher heat losses.

An AST heating mat is 180 mm wide and consists of four adjacent flexible EPDM rubber tubes connected by fixed links. The heating mats are laid on a thin layer of asphalt in conformity with DIN standards and their individual tubes are connected to a collector pipe. The energy is provided by a fluid which is pumped through the piping mat system, thus releasing an even supply of heat into the surroundings. It is warmed up by a heat exchanger that transmits the energy from any heat source to the brine fill.

With an unfilled hockey turf like the one in Grünwald leisure park, a mixture of quartz sand and gravel must be placed between the heating mats and the elastic layer in order to level out any differences in height between the individual layers. Completely level playing surfaces are essential for hockey pitches in particular in order to ensure that the ball does not "bounce". AST synthetic turf heating systems are regulated by means of a heating control system and a slope sensor and have an approximate lifespan of 15-20 years. Maintenance costs are low.

The heat for the turf in Grünwald leisure park is supplied by a Zortström distributor with different temperature zones. As well as the synthetic pitch, it also supplies the existing changing rooms at the ice-skating rink, the new hockey hut and a snow melt pit with thermal heat. Half of the energy (projection for the whole year) comes from a cooling system at the ice rink, whilst the other half comes from the 40°C return flow of the return flow of the geothermal energy used in the swimming pool.

By using these two energy sources, therefore, the municipality incurs no additional energy costs for heating the turf. In a final cost-benefit calculation, this means that the enhanced lifespan of the synthetic turf, which is 5-10 years longer, offsets the additional costs of the turf heating system. There is also a hefty reduction in personnel and repair costs – and not only can the pitch be used more often during the winter months, it also offers improved playing qualities.