The new stand at Fulham FC provides a stadium expansion, hospitality offerings, expanded river walk, health club and hotel. The constrained site on the banks of the River Thames prompted the design team to explore offsite volumetric assembly to reduce the time spent working from height and to shorten programme. The predominantly steel frame is crowned by a 35m cantilevering roof which provides, shelter to the spectators, energy generation from PV panels and plant areas within the roof trusses.
The project team embraced the challenges of the site location and used it as an opportunity to re-think how projects adjacent to the river can be constructed. The structural engineers were able to use of DfMA and the river to erect large roof trusses and steel cores with reduced work at height.
During the design process parametric modelling was utilised for the roof design, allowing the shape of the trusses to be varied and to determine the most efficient shape. The depth of the trusses and the cantilever length reduces moving out from the centreline of the stand and reflects the curve of the river.