Šiauliai Akropolis Ice Arena

The permanent indoor ice arena in Šiauliai Akropolis was commissioned in March 2009. Its 56 × 26 m ice surface provides 1,456 m² of permanent real ice integrated into a shopping and entertainment centre.

The project is a useful regional reference for clients planning a dedicated permanent rink where public skating, ice hockey and figure skating must coexist with intensive daily operation and the technical systems of a larger commercial building.

Project at a glance

Dedicated permanent ice changes the engineering priorities

Unlike a seasonal rink that is removed after winter, a permanent arena becomes a long-term part of the building. The floor, refrigeration, humidity control, resurfacing, drainage, public circulation and service access all have to work together for years.

For a similar project today, the key design questions would include:

• which sports and public programmes the rink must support;
• how many months per year the rink operates;
• required ice temperatures for different activities;
• floor construction and insulation;
• refrigeration capacity and redundancy;
• hydraulic zoning and flow balance;
• humidity and condensation control;
• resurfacing access and snow handling;
• heat-recovery opportunities;
• technical-room and maintenance access.

A permanent slab makes most sense when the owner expects long-term dedicated ice use and accepts that the floor is part of the building’s permanent technical infrastructure.

56 × 26 m: useful multifunctional ice, but geometry still matters

The documented rink measures 56 × 26 m. This provides a large surface for public skating, training and local sport activity, but dimensions alone should never be assumed to satisfy every professional competition requirement.

The current IIHF rule framework uses a 60 m rink length with a width of 26–30 m for standard competition geometry. A new project intended for sanctioned competition therefore needs the current federation requirements checked before the building and board geometry are fixed.

Practical lesson: decide the highest level of sport the facility must support before freezing the rink dimensions. Increasing or changing geometry after the building is designed can be disproportionately expensive.

One rink, several ice-quality requirements

Public skating, hockey and figure skating do not necessarily prefer the same ice condition.

ASHRAE gives representative indoor ice-temperature ranges of approximately:

• −6.7 to −5.6°C for hockey;
• −4.4 to −3.3°C for figure skating;
• −3.3 to −2.2°C for recreational skating.

These figures show why a multifunctional permanent rink should not be operated with one unnecessarily cold fixed setpoint for every programme.

The operating schedule should define when harder hockey ice is required and when a warmer recreational or figure-skating condition is acceptable. This improves both ice suitability and energy performance.

Source: ASHRAE Handbook — Refrigeration, Chapter 44: Ice Rinks.

The concrete slab is part of the refrigeration system

In a concrete-integrated rink, the slab is not simply a structural floor with refrigeration added underneath. It is part of the heat-transfer system.

For a modern permanent slab, engineering needs to coordinate:

• refrigeration-pipe position and spacing;
• reinforcement and concrete construction;
• thermal conductivity and slab thickness;
• insulation beneath the refrigerated zone;
• ground-heat and frost-protection strategy where required;
• expansion and construction details;
• hydraulic circuit lengths and zoning;
• temperature-sensor placement;
• commissioning before the slab is permanently covered by ice.

Errors inside a permanent slab are difficult to correct later, which is why the refrigeration-floor design should be frozen before concrete work rather than improvised during construction.

Hydraulic balance affects the uniformity of the ice

A large 1,456 m² surface needs consistent secondary-fluid distribution. If one circuit receives more flow than another, the rink can develop temperature differences across the slab even when the refrigeration plant itself has enough capacity.

For a new project, SPORTWAVE would check:

• circuit lengths;
• manifold arrangement;
• pump duty;
• pressure drop;
• supply / return temperature difference;
• air removal and filling procedure;
• temperature uniformity during commissioning.

Ice quality should therefore be evaluated as a combination of refrigeration capacity and hydraulic distribution.

Computer-based control supports year-round operation

The project was equipped with computer-based control of the refrigeration system.

In a permanent arena this matters because the operating load varies through the day and week. A modern control strategy would typically consider:

• ice / slab temperature;
• secondary-fluid supply and return temperatures;
• pump status;
• refrigeration stages;
• alarms and fault history;
• night and low-load modes;
• sport schedule;
• energy and runtime trends;
• remote monitoring or BMS integration where appropriate.

Controls are not a substitute for correct plant sizing, but they allow a correctly engineered system to respond more intelligently to changing demand.

Heat recovery for technical hot water

The installation used secondary heat from the refrigeration system to prepare hot water for technical ice-rink needs.

This is a logical energy strategy because a permanent ice plant continuously removes heat from the rink while the facility simultaneously needs heat for other processes.

Potential heat-recovery loads in a modern arena may include:

• resurfacing-water preheating;
• technical hot water;
• snow melting;
• underfloor / frost protection;
• ventilation-air heating;
• space heating or domestic hot-water preheating where temperature levels are suitable.

The key is to match the available recovered-heat temperature with a useful simultaneous demand rather than install heat recovery without a clear heat sink.

Commercial-building integration matters as much as the rink itself

A shopping-centre arena creates technical interfaces that a standalone outdoor rink does not have.

For a comparable project, the wider building design should coordinate:

• dehumidification and condensation control;
• heat rejection from the refrigeration plant;
• noise;
• electrical demand;
• public circulation;
• spectator zones;
• resurfacer routes;
• snow removal;
• service access;
• operating hours relative to the surrounding commercial centre.

An arena can have excellent refrigeration equipment and still operate poorly if these building interfaces are treated as somebody else’s problem.

What this project teaches about planning

The IIHF Official Ice Arena Guide states that approximately 80–90% of project implementation costs are determined during the planning phase.

The Šiauliai reference illustrates why. Decisions such as rink geometry, permanent floor construction, technical-room location, heat recovery and building integration become expensive to change once construction is advanced.

For a new facility, SPORTWAVE therefore recommends fixing the following before detailed equipment procurement:

1. operating programme;
2. required sport level;
3. rink geometry;
4. floor technology;
5. heat-load basis;
6. hydraulic concept;
7. building HVAC interfaces;
8. heat-recovery targets;
9. service and operator access.

Source: IIHF Official Ice Arena Guide 2024.

Permanent concrete slab or removable system?

The correct solution follows the annual activity calendar, not only the first winter season.

Why this project remains relevant

Šiauliai Akropolis demonstrates a durable permanent-rink concept where concrete slab, refrigeration, computer control, technical heat recovery and mixed public / sport use were combined inside a commercial building.

For a new client, the transferable lesson is not the historic hardware. It is the need to define the sport programme and building interfaces before the permanent floor and refrigeration system are fixed.

SPORTWAVE perspective

This project forms part of the regional experience base behind SPORTWAVE. New permanent arenas are approached as complete technical systems: rink geometry, floor, refrigeration, hydraulics, humidity, controls, heat recovery, resurfacing and operator requirements are coordinated together.

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