The simple and elegant cubic building catches the eye from afar. With a façade made of perforated, finely structured trapezoidal sheet metal and surrounding ribbon windows, the new sports hall by Thoma Lay Buchler Architektenpartnerschaft forms the prelude to the sports facility. The hall is directly connected to the outdoor playing fields and the new "sports boulevard" running alongside the playing field. It connects the hall with the side stands and the adjacent courtyard of a school. From the parking lot with its old and new trees, the path leads to the main entrance of the two-seater hall via the "Sportlerforum", a forecourt designed as a meeting point. Wide concrete seating steps invite you to linger and the tree integrated into the wood-clad seating island provides shade on sunny days. Entering the sports hall via the covered entrance area leads to the foyer, which is open all the way to the upper floor. This has walls made of exposed concrete, giving the high space a robust and lively character. On one side, a glass door provides a view into the sports hall, while the glazed corridor area can be accessed from the other side. The large, flush-mounted windows provide a wide view of the outdoor sports fields. Benches in the indoor and outdoor areas offer space for watching or waiting. As in the entire interior of the hall, a few selected materials contrast here: light spruce wood, anthracite-colored mastic asphalt and the concrete of the walls and stairs. Together with the suspended ceiling, the integrated light strips and the wall cladding made of narrow spruce wood slats, the visible, clearly structured supporting structure made of glued laminated timber trusses creates a calm room atmosphere and acoustics in the hall, which can be divided into three sections. Ribbon windows at the upper edge of the hall and east-facing skylights connect the interior with the green surroundings. The treetops moving in the wind create a beautiful interplay of light and shadow in the interior, which is also visible through the temperature- and wind-controlled awnings. A narrow corridor runs above the hall area, which can be used as a small grandstand and provides access to flexibly divisible changing rooms and special rooms. In addition to various thermal insulation measures, a central ventilation system with highly efficient heat recovery was installed. This is concealed in a lowered roof area and was supplemented with photovoltaic modules flush with the upper edge. Neither is visible from the surroundings, so that the simple, cubic appearance of the sports hall is retained.

www.thoma-lay-buchler.de

Photos:

Simon Sommer
www.simon-sommer.de

(Published in CUBE Stuttgart 03|23)