In today's competitive sports, leisure and entertainment world, every square foot of usable venue space is valuable.
SCX Special Projects helps architects to create venues that respond to new market opportunities - from adding a few rows of extra capacity, to creating thousands more concert tickets, to transforming an entire Premier League football pitch into an NFL field.
In response to the need for entertainment venues to increase occupancy rates and compete against alternative destinations, architects have invented increasingly innovative multi-use stadia.
Such multi-use spaces often require portions of a traditionally fixed building to move, or to facilitate a transformation from one venue layout to another. Moving structures on this scale – safely and under control – requires very specialist expertise.
Image: Around 800 seats attached to hydraulic ramps pivot up to create valuable concert space
SCX Special Projects has engineered and built some of the world’s iconic kinetic architecture. In 2019, it had two significant debuts in the kinetic architecture world: the dividing retractable pitch at Tottenham Hotspur’s new ground, and the No.1 Court concertina roof at Wimbledon.
However, it’s not just roofs and pitches that we can make move. We also help the architect create practical and valuable new spaces through retractable seating and terraces.
“Venue space is valuable, and architects try their best to maximise every square foot. We bring a whole new dimension to their work, taking them beyond static buildings and into moving structures.”
Mike Challenger, Chief Engineer, SCX Special Projects
General arrangement of the access tunnel and pivoting seating terrace at Tottenham Hotspur. The solution adds over 1.7 metres of headroom to the north-east access tunnel, allowing large vehicles into the inner bowl.