Canada’s new C$178m Richmond Oval is a triumph of form and function.

The venue for speed skating at the 2010 Winter Olympics, the arena’s roof features 15 100m glulam beams, 2x4 wood battens, used architecturally in the ceiling, and trusses and rafters made in a million board feet of timber from trees killed by the pine beetle in British Columbia (BC).

The glulam beams, made by Structurlam Products of Penticton, Canada, are joined by the arched trusses and rafters and topped with the BC timber and 19,000 plywood surface panels to give the roof its undulating finished appearance.

This combines to form a 6.5-acre, one-of-a-kind wood wave structure, which Richmond mayor Malcolm Brodie describes as “spectacular” and “remarkable”.

Richmond City Council said the roof, built by Canadian firm StructureCraft, demonstrates a number of sustainable and economical benefits, including supporting communities affected by the pine beetle epidemic in BC; using discarded materials in a key structural element; superior acoustics from the wave shape; improved safety as the panels form an immediate broad walking surface; and precision off-site manufacturing, which involved the panels being produced by a CNC processing system linked directly to a 3D computer model of the stadium.

This, said Brodie, made timber the preferred choice over steel. “The wood design is not only unique, it is also preferable to steel in many ways, including superior acoustics and sustainability,” he said.

The Richmond Oval is due to stage its first event in the autumn, three years after excavation work began on site.

London's timber dream

Canadian structural engineer Gerry Epp has said London Olympics organisers need to be educated in the benefits of timber construction if it is to feature prominently in venues.
Epp, who helped engineer the Richmond Oval and worked on its timber roof, told Timber Building’s sister publication TTJ that a bottom line mindset was the wrong way to look at sustainable construction.

“If you are going to get into bottom line-driven thinking, it’s not worth it. We have to take the high ground and promote the advantages of our product, like a high-spec BMW or Audi, if we want to win the architects.

“We find in order to be successful in getting some of these unique wood structures built, we have to go to the client and fix a price at the front end. We take the risk from them. It’s a form of design-build that has been our model.”