Sports hall / 2022

A sports hall with an audience of 1,000 people in the context of dispersed single-family housing can be a considerable spatial dissonance. Looking for a way to establish a dialogue with the environment, we proposed a subdued, formally homogeneous architecture that respects the axes of symmetry of the existing school complex.. The scale of the cuboid, almost devoid of any details, has been reduced due to the depression in the terrain, and its tectonics is limited to the undercutting of the lower corners. “Soft”, wooden, naturally patinated with gray siding of the facade will be the background for the white trunks of birch trees covering the building from three sides.

The architecture is to be classic and painterly at the same time, and the view from the row of trees will help it blend in with the landscape.

The building was designed on a square plan, the northern half of which is occupied by the playing field, and the southern half is occupied by the auditorium and the entrance hall. The facility is situated on the symmetry axis of the existing school complex and gymnasium. This axis is also maintained by the main field and the square entrance. The maneuvering square in front of the kindergarten, the auditorium on the roof of a small hall with a cafe terrace and an outdoor gym retain the proportions of the square of the entrance square, although they are composed a bit more freely.

The complex of several squares and pitches accompanying the hall with the audience and a small exercise room gives the opportunity for various types of daily activities and organizing larger events. With such meetings in mind, the hard surfaces were shaded by trees, and in places where it was possible – mainly on the quiet west side – picnic lawns were designed.

1.Partial sunk in the site

The strategic decision when designing was to determine the level of the hall’s main floor. The construction of bridge over the fire road was rejected for functional and spatial reasons. Despite the increase in costs related to earthworks and the need to remove soil, it was decided to maintain the sports hall at the level of the tunnel leading to the school and the service square. A number of factors contributed to this solution:

1. The tunnel leading to the hall leads directly to the sports hall and the base of the viewing stands.
2. Participants of school activities on their way to the sports hall without changing floors may use the sports changing rooms located on the same level.
3. The utility yard, thanks to the use of the natural slope of the terrain, is at the level of the slab and is accessible through the existing entrance between the school and the existing gym. The covered garbage can is completely invisible to outsiders. Most deliveries to the hall and to sports warehouses as well as waste disposal are carried out on one level with manual trolleys and (for heavy components) a forklift. As a result, the entire area around the hall has been freed and can be used for public space and greenery.
4. Entry from the main hall (and the grounds) to the stands takes place halfway up their height, which facilitates the filling and evacuation of a 1,000-person audience.
5. Above the walls surrounding the sport hall, it is possible to see the interior of the hall, and from the upper part of the audience, apart from the main pitch, you can also see the ‘orlika’.
6. The shape of the building, thanks to a partial sunk in the ground, is lower and does not dominate the surrounding single-family buildings.

Putting a small hall at the same level with the main sport are can be very helpful during competitions and tournaments, during which exercise rooms will be used as rooms for warming up players. The roof of the small hall was used to build an outdoor auditorium.

The part of the building below the ground level was designed in the form of a tight reinforced concrete bowl. The same material was also used in the construction of the stands, under which cloakrooms, warehouses and toilets were hidden. In addition to design tasks, thanks to high thermal inertia, the reinforced concrete mass will play the role of a temperature accumulator in daily and seasonal cycles. This stabilizes the interior temperature, preventing excessive overheating and cooling, and in combination with low-parametric heating and surface cooling based on a heat pump, it reduces the average annual energy consumption.

Wood

The entire aboveground part of the large and small hall was designed in a timber frame structure.

All four walls of the hall are built of identical glued-laminated timber frames covered with composite wood panels or glass. The shape of the glazing depends on the exposure to sunlight on the facade and the functions of the interior and exterior.

1. The northern elevation is fully glazed, even in the structural layer of the roofing. As a result, the soft northern light, which does not cause glare and heating up the interior, can penetrate deeply into the hall.
2. The eastern elevation facing the street has only one opening for direct evacuation from the audience. The introduction of glazing on the front walls of the sports field would make the game more difficult for players.

3. Opening the southern façade is a compromise between the need for the main hall to contact the entrance square, and protection against excessive overheating of the interior. There are five symmetrically placed, deep holes emphasizing the compositional axis of the ensemble. The lighting in the administrative part has been hidden behind the blinds, which were created by removing every second siding board. Despite the southern exposure, the sun does not overheat the interior, and the view from the offices to the entrance square is very good.

4. Adjacent to the west elevation is a zone with an open-air gym, picnic lawns, a cafe-buffet terrace and a small auditorium mounted on the roof of a small hall intended for organizing small meetings and performances as well as for outdoor relaxation. The distance from Traugutta Street and being blocked by the hall’s structure protects this zone from noise. The façade in part of the sports hall gable wall is full, and the openings appear at the junction with the main hall near the cafeteria. Along the facade there is an exit from the cloakroom to the outdoor fields.

The composite wooden wall panels covering the wall frames are finished from the outside with a classic “tile” siding made of larch boards. Graying of larch wood as a result of patination is a process that naturally protects the boards against moisture penetration and degradation. The pace of graying depends on exposure to sunlight (faster in sunny parts, slower in the shade), thanks to which the building has a natural, lively and variable color. Walls and openings are outlined with a hard metal “outline”. From the inside, the wall panels are finished with a three-layer perforated wooden plate, which perfectly improves the acoustics of the interior.

The hall covering is designed in the form of a wooden structure based on squares, working in a shorter direction between the northern frame and the top of the stands. The three-meter height of the main girders stiffened with ties and transverse wooden bracings allows to optimize the consumption of construction timber. Due to the partial sunk in the ground, despite the high structure, the hall’s shape does not exceed 9 m – the height is comparable to the neighboring buildings. The openwork structural layer of the roof was used to carry out the installation (ventilation, lighting, sound system, curtain drive systems) accessible from the working platforms.

It should be remembered that many months have passed since the decision on the planned investment was made, through the time of preparing the conditions, announcing the competition and designing works. Meanwhile, the dynamics of the construction market, the sharp increase in the prices of materials and services during this time and inflation unprecedented in many years will certainly significantly change the assumed budget. This cannot be forgotten.

The building is the most compact body that could be achieved with such a program. In addition, a large part of it is sunk into the ground, and the above-ground part has been designed with very good thermal parameters. Despite this, with such a volume and number of users, the demand for heat and cold will be high.

The assumptions of the competition clearly say that it is desirable to use technical and technological solutions aimed at minimizing operating costs, and even the implementation of an energy-efficient building. Unfortunately, this is in contradiction to the assumption of limiting investment costs, so the basic design decisions in this area must be made in close cooperation with the Investor.

1. The use of a heat pump is the cheapest solution in operation, but not as an investment. In addition, in practice, it forces the installation of photovoltaic panels. The ground pump has constant operating parameters throughout the year, but it is much more expensive to implement compared to the air pump. Directing the vast majority of openings to the north prevents overheating of the interior, but it should be remembered that due to climate warming it is necessary to at least partially cool the building. This additionally speaks for the use of a heat pump.
2. Maintaining a hall of this size exceeds the budget of any school. At least partial self-financing will only be possible by using the facility until late in the evening. In this situation, it is logical to use energy storage from photovoltaic panels, because it is in the evening hours that its consumption for lighting and domestic hot water will be the highest.
3. Rainwater can only be used to irrigate green areas. It can also be used all year round as gray water for flushing toilets. In the face of increasing shortages and increases in water costs, it is economically justified, but more expensive in terms of investment.
4. When it comes to the selection of sanitary fittings, it is known that the basin and shower taps dispensing water that are quite expensive to buy pay for themselves very quickly during operation.

Many examples could also be given in the field of low voltage installations, lighting control, etc.

As a design team, we are definitely supporters of cost optimization in a long-term context, taking into account the operating costs of the facility.