Since 2018, sbp has been working on the renewal of the membrane roof of the Olympic Stadium in Montréal. Alongside the design of a new state-of-the-art stadium roof, we are also supporting the client in sustainable strategies for the deconstruction and reuse of the existing roof structure, to divert as much material as possible from landfills.
Using circular economy principles, we have investigated the best path forward to dismantle the existing structure and recycle and reuse the existing components. To this end, we carried out a structural inventory of the roof and divided the components into three main categories – cables, membranes and connecting elements.
The quantification of the materials revealed that more than 12 kilometers of steel cables, 42,000m² of membrane material and 434 steel connections can be salvaged from the roof and put to reuse. This analysis serves as the basis for multiple material reuse routes, from the organization of sustainability partners to receive and/or process the materials to design concepts for novel material reuse of deconstructed elements directly at the project site. sbp also developed a material evaluation process to qualitatively confirm the material properties and specifications of the available elements to assist with recertification for reuse.
Following this structural inventory, an international ideas competition has now been launched by the client to find the best concepts for reusing the materials. sbp Project Manager Jorge Chenevey is part of the jury and will also advise the client on feasibility. We are looking forward to the proposals and are excited about this important step towards ensuring a second life for the components of the existing roof.
