Mott MacDonald contributes to world-first design guidelines for elite women’s stadiums

Mott MacDonald has played a key role in developing new guidelines for sport stadium design, published today by Barclays Women’s Super League (WSL) Football. The guidelines represent a world-first framework that aims to support clubs, local authorities and architects in building or upgrading venues specifically for their women’s teams.

The rapid growth of the women’s game has demonstrated that football venues, which have historically been built and designed for the male player and fan, need to be better equipped to cater for the specific needs of female athletes and supporters, creating a welcoming and inclusive environment, and consequently, becoming spaces that serve everyone, regardless of their gender.

To explore what women’s stadiums of the future could look like, Barclays WSL Football undertook a comprehensive consultation process. This involved supporters, clubs, players, managers, matchday staff including medical professionals, media, governing bodies, engineers, sports architects and sustainability experts.

The consultation highlighted several new approaches including a focus on female-friendly changing rooms and toilet facilities, parent/guardian orientated spaces, including family toilets and breastfeeding areas, accessibility for those with disabilities and futureproofing for climate change.

As well as helping to shape recommendations for mechanical, electrical and plumbing, sports lighting, power and information and communications technology, Mott MacDonald took the lead on producing guidelines for sustainability and climate resilience, which encourage designers to integrate green practices as ‘business as usual’. Recommendations include renewable energy systems, rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling, eliminating single-use plastics, alongside ensuring measures to mitigate heat stress and manage flood risk are embedded in design from the start.

Mott MacDonald’s technical director for buildings, Ruth Shilston, said: "These new women's stadium guidelines have been an opportunity to shape industry standards that will transform the way we design, build and experience football stadiums."

We’re proud to have brought our decades of experience at the cutting edge of future-proofed building design to embed sustainability and climate resilience as design standards. We’re looking forward to seeing them adopted across the industry to help progress sports venues across the UK.

Hannah Buckley, head of safety, sustainability and infrastructure for WSL Football, said: “We’re thrilled to unveil this document - it was acknowledged that female specific stadiums were a blind spot in the industry, and the willingness of our stakeholders to come together with their expertise and insights has been inspiring.”

The guidance document can be viewed online at wslfootball.com.