What we delivered

  • Multidisciplinary services, including a rooftop photovoltaic system generating about 724,000 kWh annually

  • Reduced structural steel use by over 20 tonnes through innovative design of the stadium's key features

Services used
Civil engineering / Facade design and engineering / Structural engineering

Get in touch with our team

The La Trobe University Sports Stadium, Melbourne, is an Australian-first. Generating more energy on site than it uses – making it net positive – it’s the first sports building in Australia to be awarded a 6 Star Green Star Design and As Built rating for sustainable building practice by the Green Building Council of Australia. The first major piece of La Trobe’s bold ‘University City of the Future’ plan, the stadium and surrounding park will help it achieve its Net Zero strategy for a net positive operation.

We designed the stadium with a vast high-spec photovoltaic array on the roof that amounts to over 519kW and generates around 724,000 kWh per year. This is more than enough to meet the stadium’s electrical demand, so surplus renewable energy is fed back into the rest of the campus. We were involved in stage 3 of the wider sports park masterplan, which has led to Australia’s national women’s soccer team, the Matildas, and Football Victoria and Rugby Victoria making the facility their national base.

The stadium provides much-needed community sporting facilities to Melbourne’s northern suburbs. It offers a unique environment where community members participate in sport and physical activity alongside elite athlete programs, where university students and the sport industry collaborate, and where world class sport research can thrive. 

Material innovation

We conducted a whole of building Life Cycle Assessment using eToolLCD software, comparing the building to a ‘Business as Usual (BAU)’ reference case. Our structurally efficient design achieved a reduction of 15 per cent in embodied carbon (the greenhouse gas emissions generated upfront to construct the building) compared to 'business as usual'.

Our structural design of the long span roof drew from architectural elements, such as the striking cantilevered canopy over the main entrance and the trussed columns in the southern hall, to find an efficient form. By using these features as key structural elements, we reduced the overall amount of structural steel, a highly carbon intensive material. Reduced by 21.1 tonnes, it resulted in a 5 per cent decrease across the whole building.

The stadium exceeded the Green Building Council of Australia’s criteria. It achieved innovation points for sustainable sourcing, use and disposal of materials, material reduction and efficient material use, with 16 per cent of the building area fit out with locally procured, sustainable products.

Connecting communities

The local community as well as the university will benefit from these state-of-the-art facilities. The stadium houses six multi-purpose highball courts, a teaching and research building with world-class sport science and analytics research laboratories; a café; and office space for commercial tenants.  

Aerial view of La Trobe Sports Stadium and playing fields

La Trobe University Sports Stadium with rooftop photovoltaic system

Students leaving the La Trobe Sports Stadium on a sunny day

Students leaving La Trobe Sports Stadium © Derek Swalwell

Partners & collaborators

Warren and Mahoney / ADCO Constructions / TSA Management / Stantec