FCC Construcción

The Rockódromo Arena situated on the fairgrounds belonging to Empresa Municipal Campo de la Naciones in the Casa de Campo, Madrid, is a multi-purpose pavilion (arena/pavilion) that can seat a maximum of 10,800. Its floor area is 29,800 m².

The Rockódromo Pavilion is a building with an ovoid base. Its southwest side is partly buried, to adapt more fully to the contours of the former valley floor on which it is built. To the northeast the land slopes away, leaving the building's northeast face completely free.

One of the most unique parts of the building is its "bicycle-wheel" roof. This compound structure features an outer ring of reinforced concrete resting on the ring's directrix, bridging 30-metre spans, and on twelve pairs of pillars whose piles are driven down through the alluvial soil of the valley and embedded into the firmer stratum below. On the concrete ring there rest six reinforced metal beams that converge at a central ring that is also made of steel. The main thing holding up this structure is a set of cables, which form an 8º angle with the horizontal plane. They are post-tensioned and anchored along the outer portion of the concrete ring and the inner portion of the steel ring, compressing the outer ring and placing traction on the inner ring. The vertical component of the tensions channelled by the cables holds up the steel ring at the centre, achieving a maximum span of 125 metres between the outer portions of the roof. For the deck roof support, a spacing structure of cylindrical steel bars is used, which are joined by solid forged spheres to form tetrahedrons in a lattice that rests on the main metal beams mentioned above.

The stadium seating for 10,800 spectators sits on the prefabricated concrete structure. The seating can be retracted; that is, it has a built-in motor that pulls the seats back to free up an area of 6,000 m², making it possible to use the premises for trade fairs. That's the kind of versatility an arena pavilion has got to have. The retractable seating is world-record size.

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• Madrid Rockódromo Arena