Client: Salzburg City
Architects: SP Engel & Zimmermann
Project managers: SAB-Finanz GmbH
Timber suppliers: Wiehag GmbH

This impressive timber structure, one of the largest recently constructed in Austria, was opened in November 2003. An architectural landmark, sited in the Congress Area of Salzburg, on the outskirts of the historic city, the building has an 81m x 107m envelope, giving an effective arena area of 2,650m2 and a capacity of 6,700 spectators for sports events, where the city had previously been able to accommodate no more than 2,200 under one roof.

Today, local, national and international visitors are regularly hosted here, and cultural activities, entertainment, business events and television productions are regular alternatives to sports. As a result, the space is designed to be flexible, with the services and ancillaries to match, and format changes can be completed within a working day.

Typical sports events held in the Salzburg Arena include football, handball, volleyball, basketball, tennis, table tennis, boxing, judo and karate, wrestling, fencing, pistol shooting, gymnastics, and ‘fun events’. For the more serious sports, the facilities are arranged to international standards. For concerts, theatre, chamber opera, film festivals and conferences, audiences of up to about 5,000 can be accommodated. As Salzburg is one of the bidders for the 2014 Winter Olympics, the proposals include using the arena for international curling competitions.

The oval plan form comprises relatively low rise glulam arches, lightly steel braced and carrying timber purlins. The maximum span is 81m and the rise does not exceed 15m. This structural arrangement creates a space similar to that of an oval dome, with advantages in terms of ease of manufacture and erection, albeit with some sacrifice to pure structural efficiency compared with the true domes.