Ken Rosewall Arena Redevelopment

In the year 2000, the original Ken Rosewall Arena was unveiled to host Tennis for the Sydney Olympics. Almost two decades later, as architects we were appointed to transform the facility into a multipurpose outdoor covered arena as the Sydney Indoor Arena Feasibility Study proved that a new Arena could not be completed in the medium term. The Project centred around the upgrade and roofing of Ken Rosewall Arena to be completed in time to host the ATP Cup inaugural event in January 2020. In addition, it would go on to host Netball NSW annually from March to October for the Super Netball season. The ATP competition requires an “outdoor” event albeit sheltered from the elements, so the players are playing with similar thermal comfort conditions as if playing in the shade outdoors. Outside the ATP event Tennis NSW would use all areas not occupied by Netball NSW for administration facilities and the operation of the Australia Tennis Museum while Tennis World club operations use the remaining courts and Netball NSW are to host their two state teams (the Giants and the Swifts) home season matches and will also host some international events for the National team - the Diamonds’. Contrary to Tennis, the Netball competitions requires an “indoor” venue eliminating glare, inclement weather and dust on the court. The solution was to provide a new roof design developed with a new cable net steel structure supporting a PTFE fabric which was restrained at the perimeter with two compression rings supported off a strengthened array off the existing raking column structure. The cables were connected to two central tension rings over the court which allowed for a ventilation pop up in the roof above them. The redeveloped Arena features upsized videoboards used when hosting tennis placed on the east and west stands concealing open production areas behind with another screen hanging outside of the north east façade facing the live site during the tournament. In Netball mode these screens are reassembled in a cube format affixed to a gondola hanging from the central tension ring above the palleted sprung timber Netball flooring. New anti-glare LED sports lighting were installed for high definition recording along with a new combined PA / EWIS sound system. Thermal comfort for spectators is provided with large air movers above the stands with bump in air coolers for the field of play during Netball. The seats were replaced in order to improve the user experience. The colour scheme of the new seats includes three different blues as part of the way finding strategy and forms part of the arena’s new branding. As a key item for Ken Rosewall Arena user experience was to improve the existing wayfinding to facilitate access and identification for allocated seats. A new seat numbering system was introduced to reduce the decision facilitating simpler seat identification. In addition to work on the Arena, the project included improvements to the administration building, resulting in a more comfortable experience for sport players and media. The upgrades to the Ken Rosewall arena and the precinct created a transformation that was undertaken to respect venues’ Olympic and architectural legacy creating a contemporary facility that successfully allows the arena to host International Tennis tournaments and Netball games.