A stadium using materials made from recycled plastic bottles demonstrates a Taiwan company’s pioneering green technology and sustainable development efforts.
Unveiled July 19 in Taipei City’s Xinyi District, the Nike Area 13 pop-up stadium is a collaboration between sustainable solutions company Miniwiz Sustainable Energy Development Ltd. and U.S.-based sportswear company Nike, Inc.
The open-air stadium is suspended by two 200-ton cranes without using any steel reinforced concrete beams and columns. Made of recycled polyethylene terephthalate, or PET, yarns from 35,000 plastic bottles, the structure offers a well-ventilated environment in hot summer evenings through mid-August.
“Material and structure come before appearance and design in this project,” said Arthur Huang, managing director of Miniwiz.
“During a talk with a friend after I took a run one day, I said I would like to build the lightest and simplest stadium resembling the shape of a sheet of tissue paper pulled up in the center.”
Different from traditional stadiums that use a substantial amount of building materials, Huang said his structure also employs recycled materials in its environmentally friendly architecture.
Miniwiz is known for green building design and construction, including the EcoArk Pavilion in Taipei City and Nike Flyknit Collective-Feather Pavilion in Beijing.
Constructed for the 2010 Taipei International Flora Exposition, the EcoArk was built out of the innovative plastic bricks made from 1.5 million recycled PET bottles.
Using similar technology, the walls of the Feather Pavilion are made entirely of recycled thermoplastic polyurethane with plastic brick interlocks and recycled rice husks to create a resilient structure.
The innovative Beijing project won the Industrial Designers Society of America’s 2013 International Design Excellence Gold Award.
