AZ Stadium - Alkmaar (Holland)

In 2005, UEFA semi-final playing football club AZ Alkmaar needed a new stadium urgently. Alongside national highway A9, on the south side of Alkmaar, the new DSB stadium has risen, which can accommodate 17,000 visitors. The canopy follows a fluent line of the stands, skyboxes and other

spaces whom vary in height. Starting point in the design was the personal football experience of the viewer: the prefab concrete stand elements are all rounded off differently, to the effect that the stand runs like an oval around the pitch. A true football theatre. Bartels Consulting Engineers did the prefab engineering for this project.

 

For every phase of the project there was a tight time schedule, because the stadium had to be finished as soon as possible. From very brief drawings and descriptions, Bartels has made a cross-cut for the stand sides. After that the prefab elements were designed and calculated by us. For the stadium a number of 1400 prefab concrete elements were used with a joint length of 10.5 kilometers. It was taken into account with the calculations that the elements had to be prevented from vibrating, for instance when the visitors cheer and jump when a goal is scored.