[ Toyo Ito & Associates ] World Games Stadium

i remember reading about the stadium featured in the video above a couple of years back, just after construction had begun. fast forward what seems like a week and whaddya know, it's finished. and stunning. practically every square inch of its dragonesque roof is covered by 8'844 solar panels, ready to supply the enormous record-breaking building with clean power.

at the moment it's called (in english at least) the 'world games stadium', can be found in kaohsiung, taiwan and was built to coincide with the opening of the world games - the unpopular but cool family member in the sporting events calendar - which are to be held in taiwan this july. it can hold 55'000 spectators, was designed by the brilliant japanese architect toyo ito, and cost upwards of US$150m to build. now, according to wikipedia, this structure is 'the first stadium in the world to provide power using solar energy technology', but i beg to differ, as at least one stadium i know of already has a similar, albeit smaller, rooftop setup which provides the venue with a large percentage of its power. however as far as i know this taiwanese effort does hold the record for 'largest solar-powered stadium in the world' as a result of its incredible 14,155m2 roof which could potentially generate 1.14 gigawatt hours of electricity every year; enough electricity to power up to 80% of the surrounding neighbourhood after being fed into the grid on the days when the stadium is unused.

hopefully it won't be too long before all stadiums have similar systems. apart from manchester that is. you'd be better off using piezoelectrics to harness energy produced by the relentless rainfall around here. not that i'm bitter.

read more about the stadium here, here, and here.

pictures below, all at various stages of construction (earliest to newest). found at the links just mentioned, plus here.

from  deputy-dog