Yay, it's working now.

I agree with every word of your post, mrparkersdogbite - including, particularly, what a brilliant job Neilando has done - especially considering the limited information at his disposal. I was going to make exactly the same points myself about the buttresses alternating between different thicknesses, with the thinner ones seeming to extend outwards slightly less than the thicker ones.

Neilando, thanks again for your brilliant work. The only additional point that I would make is that if you wish to refine your model even further, as well as varying the thicknesses of the columns you could use the white lines in the first image below, as well as the ground plan shape in the second image, to try and guess the exterior shape of the stands. Obviously, there would have to be some guesswork involved in tallying everything together, as you would be attempting to interpret a high-elevation 2-D perspective image in 3-D.

Some of the following may be redundant because I wrote this post earlier but couldn't send it because SSC was playing up on me: if your model suggests that it might be possible that the roof "ribs" do indeed converge radially on the centre of the pitch - in the way that I described in my last post - would it be convenient to model such a roof (including with the "ribs" giving way to radial cable "spokes" that extend a short distance to a circular ring of cable)? I completely understand if this would be too onerous a task (I'm afraid that I'm ignorant of the amount of work involved in creating such a 3-D model), particularly since I think that the oddly-faceted planes of the roof would make modelling convergent features extremely difficult. (I imagine that the only perfect way to do it would be to model vertical 2-D plane surfaces centred on the centre of the pitch which then fan out radially and bisect the contoured roof. Obviously, I wouldn't ask you to consider constructing something that complex, but I imagine that it might be part of how HdM's structural engineers modelled the roof shape and dynamics.)

So, to be clear (because much of this post was written before your latest post) I understand what you are saying about the length of the brick-clad roof "ribs" if they were extended over the pitch - and how much light they'd block, but have you considered only extending the brick ribs as far as the stands and then have them replaced by very thin lines representing cables? Do you think that the brick "ribs" would still be unfeasibly long? I envisage that these tensioned cables emerging from the ends of the brick ribs might be as short a length as possible before connecting to a circular cable tension ring that would be as wide a diameter as possible, i.e. almost as wide as the pitch. Sorry if none of this makes any sense because either it doesn't seem feasible or I haven't been very clear in what I'm saying (or both ). I know that this post is a bit of a mess.


the white lines in this drawing seem to illustrate the shape of the stadium exterior


this ground plan diagram gives the overall shape of the stadium's footprint from above

mrparkersdogbite said:

Love Neilando's renders of the shell of the stadium though obviously we all understand that there is some guesswork involved. Thanks to him for his efforts anyway. Just two observations that I'd add - in the sketches, the buttresses clearly seem to alternate between being thicker then thinner (you can see this from the sketch of the West Stand from the main gate). You can also see this in the sketch of the new Stamford Bridge walkway but in this picture the thinner buttresses actually appear to be set in closer to the stadium structure than their thicker equivalents. I've no idea how tricky it would be to incorporate these features into an updated 3D model but if you could then it'd give us an even closer approximation of the current design.

Click to expand...

I think a square roof would be better than a round one.

Different shape, but it makes me think of the Parc des Princes.

That may well be the case, Tikal, but what I'm describing has been suggested by people who spoke with the designers of the stadium at a public consultation and have suggested (if my memory serves) that the brick roof elements may give way to cables like a bicycle wheel's spokes and that the roof has a circular form from above - which wouldn't, as you say, tally with the rectangular inner edge of the "covering" roof shape suggested by the cross sections which are the basis for Neilando's 3-D model. There has also been a suggestion that these purported cable "spokes" might extend all the way to the centre circle - therefore connecting to a very small-diameter tension ring

I can see how it could be circular. Based on the plans (i.imgur.com/0x5HO3g.png), and from Neilando's model, the main truss, which will be the highest point of the structure at a constant height all around the stadium would look like that : i.imgur.com/LRU6sLe.png

The corners will be very elaborate to pull that off, especially with the difference in buttresses positions and angle between the stands

AstroBiont it was me that went to the consultation and mentioned the bicycle spokes. No mention of cables however. What was described to me was a roof that when viewed from overhead was circular(although irregular at the edges due to the shape of the stadium). No mention of cables but that the brick buttresses become steel beams and converge like the spokes of a wheel. No mention of a tension ring, but was mentioned that similar engineering principles in the roof to the birdsnest stadium in Beijing also by Herzog

Cannot really visualise it myself but here is a page about the roof structure at the Birdsnest

Actually I can't post the link as I haven't made enough posts

I will render an image with the roof having a circular centre. I really can't see what the benefit of doing this is. It would surely by far more complicated to achieve and in my opinion, be at odds with the angular form of the rest of the stadium. Plus, it really restricts light hugely when compared to a square centre to the roof.

dave_hall77 said:

AstroBiont it was me that went to the consultation and mentioned the bicycle spokes. No mention of cables however. What was described to me was a roof that when viewed from overhead was circular(although irregular at the edges due to the shape of the stadium). No mention of cables but that the brick buttresses become steel beams and converge like the spokes of a wheel. No mention of a tension ring, but was mentioned that similar engineering principles in the roof to the birdsnest stadium in Beijing also by Herzog

Click to expand...

Thanks dave_hall77. It seems then that I misunderstood what was described. My apologies to all concerned. Neilando, please disregard my earlier request. So Neilando's renders may already be very close to the truth. I must confess, though, that I'm still a bit perplexed about how the roof could have a circular form from above. Perhaps it will, as RMB2007 astutely observes, be quite similar in many ways to Parc des Princes. I'm actually quite relieved - I never liked the thought of cables extending over the pitch.

Hmm actually just been doing a bit of research and worth looking at the structural engineers engaged for some clues. They are Schlaich Bergermann & Partners. Seem to have been involved with loads of stadiums but the common theme appears to be membrane roofs.

Here's the link to the list of stadium roofs and facades they've been involved with. It's an impressive list:

http://www.sbp.de/en/build/category/83-Roofs_and_Façades

Good tip. Just google them. Interestingly, nearly all of their roof designs for stadiums have circular centres. And Sammy include a centre tension ring from which big screens are hung. This image shows one of their designs which has three tiers, and buttress supports around the exterior to support the roof. The buttresses only extend half way into the stadium, from which lighter weight construction is used.

dave_hall77 said:

Hmm actually just been doing a bit of research and worth looking at the structural engineers engaged for some clues. They are Schlaich Bergermann & Partners. Seem to have been involved with loads of stadiums but the common theme appears to be membrane roofs.

Click to expand...

And perhaps the following image shows the bicycle wheel concept some of you have mentioned?

Hi, I'm new here, i started reading this forum years ago cause i'm interested in the new THFC stadium, and now I'm also looking at yours.

However, looking at the renders from Neilando and the plan from CFC meeting, it seems to me that there isn't any buttress on the East Stand (the one over the railway)

ht tp://i. img ur.com/ 7sdmred .jpg

Apparently there will be, but they are decorative only, and are not for structural support.

Ben155 said:

Hi, I'm new here, i started reading this forum years ago cause i'm interested in the new THFC stadium, and now I'm also looking at yours.

However, looking at the renders from Neilando and the plan from CFC meeting, it seems to me that there isn't any buttress on the East Stand (the one over the railway)

ht tp://i. img ur.com/ 7sdmred .jpg

Click to expand...

Yes Neilando certainly seemed to make sense more once I looked at their site can picture it better now. Just had a thought that structural engineers normally have specialities and styles so it was worth a look. Certainly that first one linked above sounds like the structure described to me

Welcome to posting on SSC Ben155.

I have re made the roof to be more like the type of design the architects usually make. In fact, I haven't seen them make any other type of roof so it seems safe to assume that this will be the style roof they use again for Stamford bridge. It also more closely reflects the comments people have made that the roof has been described as a bicycle wheel with spokes converging at the centre. And finally, and I added the thinner buttresses too.

Wow. Would love to see some other angles of this model. Especially one from directly above.

Superb work again Neilando.