Design Aspects of the New Liverpool Football Club Stadium Roof

The new Liverpool Football Stadium will be an instantly recognizable sports complex that both represents the future, and honours the legacy, of one of the oldest football clubs in the United Kingdom. The new stadium will have a 72,000 seat capacity and will highlight the historic Kop which is the traditional stand for the passionate home fans. The structural concept of the roof has been developed as a response to the plan and elevation of the seating bowl and to create a visual dynamic for the stadium as a whole. To reflect the history of traditional British football stadia and deal with different stand uses, the stands are designed as four separate structures, rather than a continuous seating bowl which is the recent trend in modern stadia design. The roof structural system takes advantage of this architectural feature by introducing roof support in the four corners between the stands. These supports are inclined to provide thrust in three of the main span elements. These main span roof trusses in the east, west and south stands share a common form and feature steel, fabricated, stiffened arches. The east and west (sidestands) trusses also include catenary cables as an inverted mirror geometry to the arch spans which creates a unique hybrid system.