Mass Timber Japan-Style

In what represents one of its first uses for a sports stadium, a Japanese soccer team is using mass timber for its new home.

The Japanese city of Fukushima was devastated by an earthquake and subsequent tsunami that created a nuclear disaster in 2011 but ever since it has been trying to rebuild, both physically and spiritually.

The latest effort is an entirely wooden sports stadium that will be the new home of its Fukushima United FC team. The circular, two-tiered stadium will seat 5,000 and was designed by Japanese architecture studio VUILD, created as “a symbol of hope and regeneration.”

The website Designboom, in reporting on the stadium, which is still in the planning stages, wrote, “Central to the concept is the use of timber sourced from local forests. Laminated wood will form the structural framework, with components engineered for disassembly and reuse.”

The unusual design for the structure breaks the norm of traditional sports venues, it said. “Instead of concentrating all seating in a dominant main stand, the design circulates a cross-section equivalent to a two-story house (divided) into four volumes, each with its own entrance.“

Dezeen, another design website in writing about the stadium, said construction “will involve the communal assembly of timber shells, trusses and external walls made from locally-sourced laminated timber that will compose the stadium’s four interconnected sections.

“Each component will be designed for disassembly and reuse, supporting circular use of regional resources,” VUILD said. “The fabrication and assembly will invite club members and local residents to participate in a festive, community-driven process.”

The Fukushima stadium is only the latest new building project to employ mass timber construction, but it represents what is believed to be one of the first uses in such a structure.

Image: visualization © VUILD 

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