Client: Boston Borough Council
Architects: BGP McConaghy Architects Ltd
Construction managers: Peter Griffiths Associates
Structural engineers: Finnmap Oy
Timber suppliers: Finnforest Merk

• Glulam beams up to 30m long
• LVL beams up to 22m long
• Multi-faceted hollow-cored LVL columns
• ThermoWood® cladding
• External grade plywood
• Timber clad walls
• Laminated timber flooring

The Princess Royal Sports Arena, a competition arena combined with state of the art training facilities, is a showcase for the use of engineered timber. Extensive use was made of pre-fabricated elements, like the hollow-cored multifaceted Laminated Veneer Lumber (LVL) columns, to achieve the required quality. The design incorporates a central glazed ‘street’ made up of curved glulam beams, glazed with 20% opacity polymer sheeting. Roof beams of solid LVL, weighing 2.25 tonnes each, achieve a span of up to 22m, while glulam beams achieve a span of over 30m to create the main roof structure.

Externally, the building is clad in ThermoWood®, which gains its hardness, durability and colour through heat treatment rather than chemical preservatives. Although no surface treatment is necessary, it has been coated in a light oak wood stain. The rest of the external cladding, used at a higher level, is external-grade ply finished in a lighter coloured stain.

The aerobics studio has timber-clad walls, a soffit of Finnish softwood and a sprung laminated floor that uses the properties of the timber elements to provide the ‘bounce’, rather than needing to support the floor on springs. This consists of an oak veneer on a laminboard of timber boarding on ply. It is the precise composition of this sandwich that provides the desired flexibility.