Frequently host to soccer and cultural events, La Plata Stadium in La Plata, Argentina will soon feature a Birdair cable structure and fabric roofing system.

Birdair was enlisted as a specialty subcontractor for the 53,000-seat capacity stadium, which originally opened in 2003 and was designed by architect Roberto Ferreira.

The company will engineer, construct and install a 312,545 square-foot tensile roof featuring Birdair’s steel cable systems and PTFE, a Teflon®-coated woven fiberglass membrane.

To accommodate the unconventional geometry of the stadium, the main roof structure will be 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 will 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.

Engineer: Weidlinger and Associates
General Contractor: Astillero Rio Santiago