The Richmond Olympic Oval, the speed skating venue at the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, is demonstrating the benefits of building with wood and has taken out a number of major international architectural and engineering awards.
An example of the venue's environmental sustainability is the six acre free spanning wood roof - the world's largest clear span wood structure.
"What stadiums and facilities that utilise wood as the primary component in the building's structure have in common is the expression of a sophisticated design using a renewable resource," says Phil Baigent, director at Ancher Mortlock Woolley, the firm which designed Sydney's Olympic Exhibition Centre at Homebush - the largest clear span timber structure in Australia. "This is where the material's natural characteristics may be fully utilised, to combine its physical properties, aesthetic appeal and to support contemporary environmental initiatives for a sustainable future".
Wood requires little energy to process and has no toxic by-products, with solid sawn lumber being the least energy intensive and least polluting of all possible construction materials for the venue.
The building has achieved a LEED Silver Certification, developed by the US Green Building Council and the 100-by-200 metre roof is the largest surface ever to make use of wood salvaged from forests that have been devastated by the Mountain Pine beetle.
The roof's wave design and supporting panel system employs conventional timber and plywood used in wooden frame construction throughout North America. The wave panel system will deliver improved sound diffusion and effective absorption of low-pitched sound.
