Pic: Zaha Hadid Architects
NATIONAL LEAGUE side Forest Green Rovers have selected the two possible designs for their new 5,000 capacity stadium.
Almost 50 designs from architects in the UK, France, Sweden, Germany and the United States were submitted as part of a competition and they have now been whittled down to just two.
The new ground will be the centrepiece of the new £100m sports and green technology business park beside junction 13 of the M5 in Gloucestershire.
Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA), who were responsible for the London 2012 Olympic Aquatic Centre, and designers of the Gloucester Services on the M5, Glenn Howells Architects (GHA), were the two firms picked out.
The winning design will be unveiled in September and Forest Green owner Dale Vince said: “The diversity and quality of the designs were outstanding and it was a very difficult process narrowing it down from nine to two.
“In the two finalists, we have one from a globally renowned practice and the other designed by an architect that created the award-winning Gloucester services right on our doorstep.”
ZHA director Jim Heverin added: “The selection allows us to continue working with the Forest Green Rovers team to deliver a stadium and landscape design using timber construction that embodies the virtues of beauty and sustainability in this unique Stroud countryside location.”
GHA founder Glenn Howells, meanwhile, said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have reached the final stage of this very exciting project.
“The ambition and vision of the client will make this a truly innovative and ground breaking stadium and we look forward to developing our proposals to demonstrate how this can be achieved.”
