Palasport Oval Lingotto provided an 8,500 seat world-class speed skating arena for the 2006 Turin Winter Olympic Games. This new facility, along with the Olympic Village, was part of the redevelopment of the Lingotto exhibition complex on the site of the former Fiat factory.

A key challenge was the construction of the arena’s soaring 110m x 220m clear-span roof structure, which is made up of a system of arching secondary trusses and curved primary bow-trusses supported at one end on ‘quadrapod’ legs. The roof is designed to carry substantial snow loads and undergoes large deflections under both snow and thermal loadings, requiring an innovative joint at the head of the facades to accommodate these movements.

Building services design was driven by the tight air temperature and humidity requirements; several factors had to be closely controlled, not least the amount of sunlight entering the building.

The arena was designed to serve multiple functions after the Games: it offers skating facilities for the local community and national teams in winter, and is used as an exhibition centre in the summer. The auditorium can be converted into three exhibition halls by using sliding curtains accommodated in the roof structure.

Dates: Completed in 2005