海角视频

Co-op Live

Manchester, UK

海角视频 played a key role in enabling the development of the UK鈥檚 largest live indoor music venue 鈥� Co-op Live, which can accommodate up to 23,500 people.

Inspired by Manchester鈥檚 reputation as a world-leading setting for music, sport and live entertainment, the new arena brings fans closer to the stage than at any comparable venue in Europe and can be reconfigurable for a range of shows and opportunities to support a year-round event programme.

Challenge

The arena is located on the Etihad Campus, adjacent to the home of Manchester City Football Club. The site was formerly occupied by a gasworks and has more recently been used as an occasional overspill car park for the Etihad Stadium. The site had complex ground conditions, including significant depths of fill material, shallow-worked coal seams and mine shafts, and a former riverbed.

As a joint venture between Oak View Group and City Football Group, Co-op Live has been designed to transform the live music experience for both artists and fans. As a state-of-the-art music-first arena, Co-op Live boasts the largest floor space of any indoor arena within the UK, and tiered seating that brings fans closer to the performers.

Cutting edge visual technology, exceptional acoustics and an innovative sound bowl design mean the best show possible whether standing or seated.

A multidisciplinary team from 海角视频 was engaged to take the project, which also includes bars, restaurants and lounges, from (RIBA Stage 1) Preparation and Briefing through to (RIBA Stage 4) Technical Design and to completion for certain aspects.

We delivered expert consultancy and design input across a broad range of disciplines, from structural, ground, civil and facades engineering, through to creating strategies around fire safety, security, people movement, waste, transport and mobility and sustainability.

Co-op Live seeks to be the most sustainable arena in Europe. The client summarised aspirations for the venue with five watchwords: Proximity, embracing a design ethos that brings everyone closer to the stage; Inclusivity, to make this venue accessible to all; Flexibility, via such measures as fully retractable seating to provide a highly adaptable space; Experience, in terms of the breadth and quality of customer enjoyment; and Community 鈥� involving local people, creating jobs and providing activity space outside regular events.

Acoustically, the key challenges were to keep the soundscape clean by minimising acoustic reflection within the bowl, intimate 鈥� despite the large scale of the space, and contained 鈥� to prevent noise egress to neighbouring properties.

Solution

Unlocking and transforming the complex brownfield site, we helped the client successfully navigate an extremely demanding planning process. Our experts worked to overcome challenging site conditions to provide an efficient foundation design in a remediated site over 18th century coal workings and shafts.

We enabled the transformation of the land by designing and implementing a targeted ground investigation that combined geotechnical and geoenvironmental objectives. Liaison with the Coal Authority, Canal River Trust, United Utilities and gas distribution company Cadent, allowed us to determine the constraints to foundation solutions, and then unlock the opportunities.

Our experts conducted an extensive initial desktop exercise to build an understanding of the works beneath the site, before carrying out a series of on-site investigations. As well as navigating and stabilising the coal mining works, our team highlighted the geoenvironmental considerations that needed to be given to the River Medlock, which runs via a culvert beneath the site.

From the early 1900s to the 1970s the land was also the site of a gasworks, so a significant ground remediation strategy had to be devised to safely enable the site. Our geoenvironmental team developed a zonal map to give a clear indication of the different remediation requirements of different sections, as well as conducting a series of boreholes to ensure the accuracy of our historical data. This investigation played a key role in enabling the comprehensive remediation of the soil across the site, with the removal of hydrocarbon and heavy metal contaminants, remnants of the site鈥檚 industrial past. We also advised on ground gas protection measures for the development.

Working closely with Populous, we provided the engineering behind a bowl that is music-focused and brings fans as close to the stage as possible. We led the rigging strategy and design to create a solution that is not only high, strong and safe but also enables fast show changeovers. Our studies were supported by detailed benchmarking against 海角视频鈥檚 database of show loading data. This capability will play a key part in making Co-op Live an economically sustainable arena.

Our overall design approach was based around the client鈥檚 aspiration to be a 鈥榥ext generation venue鈥�, 鈥榖etter than the competition鈥� and the 鈥榯ouring community鈥檚 favourite鈥�. At every stage, we integrated our multidisciplinary input to help achieve project goals while tracking cost to ensure affordability and working with the contractor to ensure buildability.

Our structural engineering experts worked closely with the wider design team and contractor to engineer the structural cores in a twin wall construction. Using cantilever structures and embedded retaining walls, we enabled maximum commercial built area within the site perimeter and maximum seating space, while minimising basement construction costs.

Our team overcame the structural engineering challenges behind the stacked-box form that supports the brand of the arena externally and maximises the venue floor area internally.

The service yard was designed to optimise operational effectiveness and flexibility within the constraints of the site. We conducted a range of studies to ensure the service yard works as a highly efficient space, ensuring swift rigging and de-rigging experiences.

Our experts also developed an innovative solution for internal rigging provision and a technical grid maximising operational effectiveness through design for rigging speed and safety. We led the rigging strategy and design to create a solution that is not only high, strong and safe but also enables fast show changeovers. This capability will play a key part in making Co-op Live an economically sustainable arena.

Our people movement team also delivered digitally modelled crowd flow solutions that positively influenced the design of both the internal and external spaces and ultimately optimise the audience experience.

A specialist team of acousticians and venue technology experts from Vanguardia, a 海角视频 company, created a world-leading audio-visual strategy for the arena. We advised on sound insulation and noise reduction across the building, as well as mitigating against transmission of sound outside the venue. We also led on the full design, commissioning and testing of the world-class sound system.

Our acousticians worked closely with the wider design team to ensure the best acoustics for amplified music were achieved in the bowl itself, mitigating against sound reflections, and ensuring acoustic treatment of all walls, seating and ceiling materials. Our reflection study digitally modelled the acoustic nature of the venue design to highlight and resolve any areas of concern at the earliest stages.

BAM has been privileged to work alongside 海角视频 and the many partners involved in bringing this iconic structure to life. All of the BAM staff and our Supplier Network has contributed something truly special to delivering a live entertainment space that will be the pinnacle for anyone that gets to perform and visit there.

Simon Sutcliffe, Construction Director,

Value

At every stage, we have integrated our multidisciplinary input to help achieve project goals while tracking cost to ensure affordability. Our involvement helped the client successfully navigate an extremely demanding planning process and realise a vision for a world-class entertainment venue.

Co-op Live will host more than 120 major live arena shows a year 鈥� providing new jobs and amenities for the city. The project supported almost 5,000 jobs during construction and a further 2,000+ now the venue has opened. Co-op Live has already made substantial commitments to the city and its residents through local opportunities, a commitment to the Real Living Wage and improvements in transport and local infrastructure.