Date

2015

Author

Madani, Nigar

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Main stadium structures of summer Olympic Games are large scale structures which are specifically-designed to accommodate a very crowded amount of people and international many sports competitions of Olympic Games. There are many written documents on Olympic stadiums, however there is scarcity of knowledge on assessment of their physical performances/capacities and evolution in time based on quantitative data. The study, therefore was shaped to examine the inherent physical performances of those structures and to better understand their appropriateness, specifically potentials and limitations, for international and regional prospective events. In total, 26 main stadiums of summer Olympic Games were examined in terms of their spectator capacity performance, physical performance of geometrical layout with a focus on viewing comfort conditions for athletes and spectators, and long-term functioning in reference to the technical recommendations and/or guidelines. The presence of fully-sheltered stands area is essential due to the climatic conditions of host cities. There is a trend of reducing original spectator capacities of Olympic stadiums to the recommended/operable seating capacities during renovations. That vi signals the efforts for achieving to be able to host either many international or regional sports competitions. Non-sports activities, soccer and athletics games are the activity types mostly hosted in stadiums as post-Olympic events. Cultural significance of Olympic stadiums is one of the main determinative factor for their survival while correct positioning of stadiums and their geometric layouts and fully-sheltered stands area, if all three provided, make the stadiums preferable/remarkable for many international sports competitions, specifically soccer and athletics games. The adaptability of Olympic stadiums for regional uses/activities, if foreseen during the design stage, is an encouraging situation for their post-use in accordance with regional preferences. The individual evaluation of each stadium has shown their potentials for specific type(s) of post events as well as pointed out some improvements needed for their functioning in time. The efforts on environmentally sensitive design of stadiums is promising for the long-term functioning of stadiums with a care on environment protection. However, there is a necessity of emphasizing “physical performance requirements defined for stadiums” as sustainability criteria in “the sustainability design technical manuals” for properly-performing stadiums during their lifelong functioning.

Subject Keywords

Sports facilities., Olympics, Hosting of sporting events., Stadiums

URI

http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12619465/index.pdf
https://hdl.handle.net/11511/25150

Collections

Graduate School of Natural and Applied Sciences, Thesis