Critical Analysis Of System Design Process For Perth Stadium

This assessment requires you critically analyse the system design process of a project using the theory and principles studied during the course.

Chapters 1-6, 9 & 14, Blanchard and Fabrycky

In this assignment, you are required to write a report which critically analyses the preliminary design and detailed design phases of the project discussed in Assignment 1. Particular attention is to be paid to the system test, evaluation and validation processes employed and any optimisation that was required. In the Introduction, you will need to briefly summarise the content covered in Assignment 1.

To demonstrate your research skills and understanding, the report must draw upon relevant sources like journals, books or reputable trade publications in analysing the project. You must also present the case study in terms of the above two lifecycle phases and evaluate the detailed design against the identified needs / requirements. 

Design and Construction of Perth Stadium

Having analyzed the conceptual design of the Perth Stadium in the previous assignment, this paper analyzes the preliminary design and detailed design of the stadium by majorly considering the component design, production planning, suppliers activities, verification of production and manufacturing process, development of engineering and prototype models, and also tradeoff studies. The system design analyzes the possible alternatives as well as feasibility considerations which significantly impact the operational characteristics of the stadium and its design disposability, sustainability, supportability, producibility, and constructability.

The construction of Perth Stadium responded to the need for an appropriate and adequate space for conducting entertainments and sports events and hence satisfy the requirements of its stakeholders and users in term of environmental impacts, social benefits, functions, and cost. The construction of this stadium has led to the improved economic development and also serve as the source of attraction to people who travel from far to visit this place (Akintoye & Goulding, 2012). During the construction of the Perth Design, the structural engineers developed an efficient and stunning roof solution in close collaboration with the contractors and architects that was driven by ease of erection, transportation, and fabrication. The metrics of performance used to assess the Perth Stadium include the public transport waiting times, pedestrians’ densities and service levels, and the predicted travel times.

The major reason for the construction of Perth Stadium was to provide a venue for numerous functions such as entertainment events and athletics, Ruby, Australian Rules Footballs, soccer tournaments, and cricket tournaments. This stadium will be expected to provide different sports experiences and other entertainment events and also act as an asset for the state so as to respond to issues such as social, economic, and environmental (Cox & Ireland, 2009).

The Western Australia government publicized that the Perth Stadium would be constructed in Burswood which is positioned on the northern side of the Burswood Park golf course. The major reason for the preference of Burswood site location was because the regions were unconstrained by the surrounding developments and also the site was owned by the government. The site would be accessible to the central business district across Swan River and across Pedestrian Bridge (Culley & Pascoe, 2008).

The Trade-off analysis evaluates the alternative methods of material phase-out, alternative factory maintenance plans, and manufacturing processes. During the design process of Perth Stadium, there were numerous proposals on the alternative methods of construction and capacity of the stadium. The first proposal was the development of Subiaco Oval which was later opposed due to the high cost of development at the site because of the conditions of the site and also the need to upgrade the transport infrastructure. The second proposed plan of the Perth Stadium was the proposed 60,000 seat stadium which was expected to be a new stadium and not re-developing the Subiaco Oval (Deplazes, 2011).

The Trade-Off Analysis

The major alternative plans of Perth Stadium was basically based on the re-development of Subiaco Oval and the construction of a new 60,000 capacity stadium. A taskforce later recommended the construction of a new stadium in their released final report in 2007 May. Their proposal discouraged any further development of Subiaco Oval which later the announcement by the Government of Western Australia in July 2017 concerning the preference of constructing a new 60,000 seat stadium and not the re-development of Subiaco Oval (Farmer & Mulrooney, 2009).

Subiaco Ovals which is also commonly known as Domain Stadium is a previous stadium situated in Western Australia at a place known as Subiaco. It was initially the largest capacity stadium in West Australia with a capacity of 45,000 until it was later planned to be demolished between 2014 and 2016 to enable the construction of Perth Stadium (Friedmann & Craig Zimring, 2013).

The construction and design of the Perth Stadium meant that the land which was presently belonging to the Burswood Park golf course will be acquired by the government and then used in the construction of Perth Stadium. This site was preferred since there were no constraints from the developments surrounding and also the land was owned by the government. A design-build-finance-maintain contract was awarded to Westadium consortium led Brookfield Johnson Controls of facilities management, John Laing of equity investor and asset management, and Brookfield Multiplex of design and construction. The contract involved an operating period of 25 years (Garber, 2014).

The Perth Stadium was expected to be maintained, constructed, and developed by the Westadium consortium led by the Brookfield Multiplex. The design team of the consortium was composed of HKS, Arup, Cox Architecture, and HASSELL who were involved in the designing and surrounding area. The project budget was approximated at A$902.4 million which included A$81.7 million for the sports area and A$820.7 million for the stadium. Additional budget for the cost of project management of A$16 million and transport infrastructure of A$358 million was also included. The construction of the stadium started in 2014 December and was expected to be completed in 2017 (Graham, 2009).

The contract of Design-build-finance-maintain was awarded to Westadium consortium led by Brookfield Johnson Controls who was involved in the facilities management, John Laing who was involved in the assessment management and equity investor, and the Brookfield Multiplex who were involved in the construction and design. Ertech Keller Joint Venture which was a partnership between Keller Ground Engineering and Ertech Geomarine were awarded the pre-construction site operations contract.

Key Development Milestones and Evaluations

The unique bronze façade Perth Stadium was expected to pay homage to the unique geometry of Western Australia and also ensure that the stadium structure will be recognizable instantly. The roof of the stadium was expected to be made of fabric which will cover 85% of the spectators in the stadium and will be composed of 26,000m² of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) which is a water-resistant fluorocarbon fabric hence providing the greatest percentage of coverage of an open-air stadium with protection from advanced conditions of the atmosphere. The roof structure has 50 steel trusses which were locally manufactured in the local factory and then transported by road in a single piece of length 40m to the construction site and then lifted into position by use of cranes (Hales & Gooch, 2009).

Generally, a stadium model consists of inside large flat regions and outside parts with specific external details. The period photographs, construction drawings, and architectural blueprints are indispensable basic information when building stadium models of Path Stadium. 1:200 and 1:150 are the most commonly used scales when making the stadium model. Making an impressive stadium model needs numerous advanced technologies of making model. For instance, rapid prototyping is an ideal option for stadium roof supports and terracing construction. The system of lighting is distinctly significant since it assists in illumination and rippling through the whole stadium model. Stadium model can be used as a competitive bid for a new stadium building project or used as a showpiece during the launching of the project to the public by the developer (John, 2010).

The bowl design for the multipurpose oval brings the spectators closer to the field which is generally attained specifically in a rectangular configuration and incorporates options for reconfiguration for the future events. The first proposal was the development of Subiaco Oval which was later opposed due to the high cost of development at the site because of the conditions of the site and also the need to upgrade the transport infrastructure (Wiltschko, 2010).

The planning phase for the Perth Stadium ended with the approval of the project by Cabinet in 2012 August. This approval entails the capital funding for the project as well as the surrounding project management and sports area. The approved Perth Stadium also included the timeline for project delivery, the delivery phase governance structure, the stadium and sports section procurement strategy, and master plan structure for the delivery phase (Smibert, 2018). The first round of evaluation concluded that the site for preconstruction should immediately proceed, to ensure delivery of the project and sports section by 2018 (Tempelmans & Heynick, 2012).

Stadium Model

The following were key development milestones and evaluations of the Perth Stadium project:

• The pouring of the first concrete slap was expected to be in mid-2015
• The placement of eight tower cranes by the end of 2015
• Installation of seats was expected to begin in early 2016
• Installation of the unique façade was to begin in early 2016
• Over 5700 employees were employed directly during the construction process
• The grass playing service was expected to be completed in mid-2017
• In 2017, the 36 months of construction of Perth Stadium ended(Smibert, 2018).

The Perth Stadium was expected to represent a major activity point in the landscape of Perth being the home ground to numerous sporting events such as Cricket, Soccer, Rugby, and AFL. The initial capacity of the stadium is 60,000 seats, it is clear that one of the major challenges faced by the Perth Stadium is to ensure safe and efficient access, from and to the stadium. To help attain this challenge, an integrated public transport method has been proposed which includes pedestrian, bus, and rail solutions. Understanding the operational and capacity constraints of real-life systems is significant in the determination of the optimal conditions of operations (Sheard, 2010). The three major components that were analyzed in the Perth Stadium evaluation include the East Perth Station, Nelson Avenue Special Events Bus Stands, and the Perth Stadium Station (Roger & Zimbalist, 2011).

The simulation evaluation involved the use of numerous tools which aim at detailed crowd simulation models to assist in understanding the possible refinement to the reference design, required management overlays during event operation, and how each of the components would function. To understand the probable conditions of operation of the Perth Stadium, the simulation model used in VISWALK which can be used to model numerous scenarios for all the components of Perth Stadium (Lewis, 2008)

Figure 1: The VISWALK model simulation results of the Perth Stadium Station (John, 2010)

The metrics of performance used to assess the Perth Stadium include the public transport waiting times, pedestrians’ densities and service levels, and the predicted travel times. Some of the reasons for selecting the VISWALK model for this project is due to the robust data extraction and collection, and integration between the vehicle and pedestrian modelling, tested and tried pedestrian simulation engine (Hales & Gooch, 2009).

Figure 2: VISWALK model snapshot of Nelson Avenue special events bus stand (Petersen, 2009)

The analysis is significant since it assists in understanding critical bottleneck which is likely to happen and how modifications to the planned management and reference designs overlays are likely to affect the operation and performance of Perth Stadium.

In developing a lightweight and continuous fabric roof that responds to the climate conditions of Western Australia, the structural engineers developed an efficient and stunning roof solution in close collaboration with the contractors and architects that was driven by ease of erection, transportation, and fabrication. The use of innovative conceptual engineering details supplemented by advanced Finite Element Analysis, the design demonstrated that a continuous fabric roof, integrated with lighting and free from movement joints. Public address and other systems were safe, quick, and possible to construct (Friedmann & Craig Zimring, 2013). The figure below shows the contractual structure of the Perth Stadium project:

Figure 3: Contractual structure of Perth Stadium Project (Cox & Ireland, 2009)

Westadium was responsible for the commissioning, construction, and design of the Perth Stadium by the dates for commercial acceptance and technical completion and to ensure that it is fit for its intended use (Garber, 2014).

With roofing dominating the aesthetics of design of any design, the design of the Perth Stadium roof specifically complex since it was constructed to appear as if it is floating above the ground. Central to the design was the engineering of an innovative roof truss, established by the use of high load pin connection to support the structure. It has been reported that 750,000m³ cement kiln dust of the construction site affected the locals in terms of surface water, groundwater, and public health. The asbestos contamination on the construction site poses a threat to the public health but disturbing the site may result in soil contamination airborne asbestos fibres (Tempelmans & Heynick, 2012).  

Conclusion

This design paper analyzes the preliminary design and detailed design of the Perth Stadium by majorly considering the component design, production planning, suppliers activities, verification of production and manufacturing process, development of engineering and prototype models, and also tradeoff studies. The major reason for the construction of Perth Stadium was to provide a venue for numerous functions such as entertainment events and athletics, Ruby, ARF, soccer tournaments, and cricket tournaments. The use of innovative conceptual engineering details complemented by advanced Finite Element Analysis, the design demonstrated that a continuous fabric roof, integrated with lighting and free from movement joints.

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