Dartford FC is a small football club with a loyal following in Kent, just south-east of London. They’ve been at the game for 133 years, which is remarkable. It’s 15 year old stadium at Princes Park is also noteworthy.
The £6.5m stadium was built in 2006 with a focus on eco-friendly design, but also an aesthetic that connects it to its surrounds. It’s one thing to include sustainable building materials in an arena, but another to actually consider how a structure might exist as a part of the surrounding environment. Princes Park does this.
Chiefly, the stadium includes engineered timber and green roofs for the clubhouse and terraces. Specifically, its roof is covered by a ‘sedum roof blanket’, a layer of sedum plants upon a natural fibre mat, which means it’s quite literally alive. The openness, or spaces within the roof structure, effectively create an air filtration system – the flow of fresh air!
And the timber? It’s glulam timber, which is much lighter than steel and concrete. The lightness allowed the architects to implement shallower foundations – meaning a lower load of weight had to be supported. And you might have noticed the park’s big funny wooden man, too, seemingly propping up the roof: known as ‘Big Darts Fan’, the 5.5 metre sculpture was made by Philip Bews using green oak from Lydney Park, a 17th century country estate in Gloucestershire. It’s a delightful touch.
There are other smart design aspects, too, such as low energy lighting, fabric insulation to retain warmth and condensing boilers to provide a more energy efficient system.
Above all else, I’m drawn to the way this type of design can bring people together. It’s such an appealing thing to see a community grow around beautiful and simple ideas. This is what the club says of its fans in light of its stadium’s design:
“The successful opening of Princes Park Stadium has seen the local community throw their support behind their football team. Now, with proper facilities, all within walking distance of the town centre, supporter numbers have increased healthily.”
Many of the fans arrive to matches on local public transport, another great outcome of this smart design.
The design company that led this project was Cowan Architects.
The Soccer Pitch Is Green 