Five-star rating for in-the-offing Education City Stadium

Article posted by Coliseum, January 30^th, 2020

Image: Supreme Committee

Education City Stadium – one of the host stadia for the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar and a proposed quarter-final venue – has become the first tournament facility to boast five-star rating. The Global Sustainability Assessment System (GSAS) has bestowed the rating on the facility.

The football stadium is under construction and is coming up at Al Rayyan, Qatar.

Apart from being awarded the GSAS design and build five-star rating, the facility was presented with GSAS Construction Management Class A* and GSAS Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio certificates.

It is in January 2019 that the arena received the provisional design and build certification and the same has now been ratified. The award was presented by Dr Yousef Al Horr, the founding Chairman of the Gulf Organisation for Research & Development (GORD), to Jassim Telefat, Executive Director of the Technical Delivery Service at Qatar’s Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy.

According to FIFA, the prestigious award is considered a “mark of excellence in sustainability, design and construction”. The awards acknowledge Qatar’s responsibility to deliver sustainable infrastructure for the FIFA World Cup to be held in Qatar in 2022.

Stated Engineer Bodour Al Meer, the Supreme Committee’s Sustainability and Environment Senior Manager, who had graced the event, “This prestigious award is a clear indicator that we are delivering on our commitment to sustainability and green building. It is a proud moment for everyone that has worked on this very special project.”

“Education City Stadium will provide world-class facilities to players and supporters in 2022, but the bestowing of the award shows it also provides local communities with much more than just that – a legacy that will benefit Qatar for generations to come. We look forward to working with GORD over the coming years to ensure each of our other sites matches the high standards set by this magnificent stadium.”

The soon-to-be opened venue is scheduled to stage matches up to the quarter-final stage of the 2022 World Cup. The venue was all set to host matches during FIFA Club World Cup held in Qatar in December 2019, but its opening was deferred after the requisite certification process took more time than expected.

The arena – termed as the ‘Diamond in the Desert’ – enjoys an array of sustainability features which includes direct access to the Education City tram system which is also linked to the Doha Metro; low toxicity indoor materials and a healthy indoor environment; and LED sports lighting which offers superior light quality and consumes less energy. Apart from these, 85 percent of building materials for the structure was regionally sourced, while recycled materials attribute for 29 percent.

The in-the-offing venue is also equipped with carbon dioxide sensors for high occupant density spaces to facilitate proper ventilation and indoor air quality, and water-efficient irrigation design to minimize landscape water consumption.

All stadiums in Qatar are mandated to be conferred a minimum four-star rating from GSAS, which is the benchmark of FIFA’s sustainability rating system and will make certain that all tournament-related infrastructure measure up to stringent standards.

As per Dr Al Horr, the SC’s firm stand on sustainability has been crystal clear from the very beginning. He stated that with every new venture, the SC continues to set higher goals in order to achieve a World Cup that leaves no carbon footprints.

Dr Al Horr further noted that by measuring up to FIFA’s yardstick, in fact, exceeding the same, Education City Stadium “has raised the bar – not only for Qatar’s upcoming stadiums but also for future tournaments around the world”.

Qatar is gearing up in full gusto to host the most popular football tournament in the world – 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Everything is not just focused on completing the venues in time for the sporting spectacle, but also on “delivering amazing” on its road to 2022.

Last year, Qatar rode the wave by completing the turf-laying of two of the 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums, Al Wakrah Stadium and Al Bayt Stadium, in record time.

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