Suspended Roof for the Olympic Skating Arena, Nagano

The 18th Winter Olympics were held in February 1998 in Nagano, Japan, where the Olympic Memorial Arena was the venue for the speed skating competition. The arena, covering an area of 80 x 216 m, contains a 400 m speed-skating oval and seating for about 10,000 spectators. The most distinctive characteristic of the structure is its semi-rigid hanging roof that spans 80 m with a thickness of only 30 cm. The roof structure consists of fifteen suspended units, each composed of composite hanging beams with plywood panels fixed to them. Each composite beam is composed of two glued-laminated (glulam) timber beams sandwiching a steel plate.