Avicii Arena has been one of Stockholm’s most iconic buildings since its inauguration in 1989. The arena serves as Sweden’s national hockey arena but also hosts a variety of other events and concerts. With its modernization, the arena is to become a multi-functional, high-tech arena for national and international ice hockey games as well as world-class events. To realize the desired architectural concept and vision, major renovations, adaptations, and extensions are made to the existing building and hence to its structural system. The new structural concept is an extension to the Globen that sits on top of the existing structure and its radial ribs at each radial axis. Compression ring, radial bars, undulating inner ring and inner cable net structure form the primary load bearing steel structure. A highlight of the new structural concept are two suspended gondolas on the building’s west and east sides that are suspended from the undulating inner ring as permanent loads. These gondolas form a seating area closer to the event floor. For the resulting “stress state”, the structure is numerically shaped and optimized as an efficient, lightweight structure. Flexible moveable panels serve as an adaptable acoustic interlayer that allow to optimize the reverberation time for different types of events. When not in use, they can be parked out of sight to allow views into the impressive dome of the Globen. The cable net substructure of the panels is also used as a flexible rigging zone in addition to the new stage rig system.
