1.7K 
A Zaha Hadid Architects-designed wooden stadium has been given the green light in the English countryside. To become the new home for the Forest Green Rovers Football Club, Stroud District Council approved plans for the 5,000-seat venue after initially rejecting it in June.
The project will be built next to junction 13 of the M5 highway and will include two grass training pitches and a 1,700-space parking area. The stadium is expected to serve as the centrepiece in a £100 million sports and green technology business park development by Ecotricity, a green energy company owned by Rovers' chairman Dale Vince. To be built from sustainably source timber, the venue is anticipated to achieve carbon neutrality.
Plans also include the creation of a nature reserve that will also act as a screening measure to protect neighbours from noise pollution. The parkland will contain 500 trees and 1,500 kilometres of hedge.
Concerns surrounding potential noise, traffic and landscape impacts were primary reasons for the project's negative outcome at Stroud District Council earlier this year. The revised plan submitted in August received a 6-4 vote in favour of approval.
The vote effectively spells the end for The New Lawn, the club's current home in Nailsworth which opened in 2006. The building would be demolished and replaced with a zero-carbon affordable housing development.
The stadium was first unveiled in 2015 and should take approximately three years to be completed.
For more information, check out the associated Database file and Forum thread, and as always, feel free to join the conversation in the comments section below.
