Project Gallery / La Plata Stadium

La Plata Stadium is the first PTFE-covered stadium in South America, which has a Birdair cable structure and fabric roofing system.

Birdair served as roofing subcontractor for the 53,000-seat capacity stadium, which features 312,545 square feet of tensile roof utilizing Birdair’s steel cable systems and PTFE, a Teflon®-coated woven fiberglass membrane.

Frequently host to soccer and cultural events, La Plata Stadium features a unique distinctive twin-peaked fabric dome roof. To accommodate the unconventional geometry of the stadium, the main roof structure was formed by tensioned steel cable hoops at three different levels, together with vertical columns, diagonal cables, and ridge cables.

Unlike other tensile roof systems, the stability of La Plata stadium roof’s cable structure does not depend on the PTFE panels covering it. La Plata’s prestressed tensegrity design resists global distortion using tension. Consequently, the deck roof is extremely stiff, in a similar way that a drum skin is stiffened.

Project: La Plata Stadium
Architect: Roberto Ferreira
Engineer: Weidlinger and Associates, New York, New York
General Contractor: Astillero Rio Santiago, Rio Santiago, Ensenada, Argentina
Market Sector: Stadiums and Arenas
Materials: PTFE
Location: La Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Completed: 2011