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PROJECT REPORT: SPORTS & LEISURE FACILITIES


effectively carrying the line straight up,” says Sykes. He adds: “Timber brings a richness and


it’s quite cost effective.” It’s treated with a pale grey wash, to reduce some of the grain and give some more visual uniformity, useful for player visibility. With acoustics being a difficult challenge to get right in sports halls, the walls are perforated above the rebound area to provide lower reverberation.


Aside from the dominant materiality of wood and a dark glass floor, the other material in this precisely-crafted space is (contrastingly) transparent glass. The doors in and out are of glass, and flush glazing faces a central viewing area adjacent to the entrance “like the back wall of a squash court,” says Sykes. Above it is an open viewing gallery the same width. Rather than have the traditional netting dividers common to sports halls, with their heavy canvas bottoms, at Acer Nethercott there are roll-up screens which disappear into the ceiling, and feel a “bit more permanent” when they are down. Once areas are divided, the LED markings will only mark out the required court within that space, avoiding the normal problem of lines continuing under a curtain, making it clear to users the spaces are not separated in a fully ‘designed’ way. Here, by contrast, each divided space “feels very sport-specific.”


Light & ventilation


The building is naturally ventilated, thanks to eight cowls on the roof providing passive stack effect ventilation to keep the interiors fresh, at a ratio of two stacks per badminton court. The building has underfloor heating.


A slightly unusual hybrid approach to lighting has been used, rather than relying on artificial lighting. However as Sykes says, there is a debate around using rooflights in sports halls, “because simply put, you’re better off without them in terms of controlling the light.”


As the client wanted to use the hall for other non-sport functions, they were seeking a warmer light quality, so wanted natural and artificial light to “work in tandem.” Sykes said natural light “adds quality and richness without detracting from the sporting endeavours inside.” And, rather than the traditional approach of placing strips of rooflights between the badminton courts, across the hall, here there are two long rooflights down the side walls,


ADF JULY 2019


37


© Diane Auckland


which “wash the walls with light.” The artificial LED lighting has presented “interesting challenges,” says Sykes. It is located in norma positions, but “because there’s less of it, there were some contrast issues which presented learning points.” He admits that with the space having far less visual clutter than normal, it is something of a victim of its own success, its qualities serving to heighten users’ perception of their environment. Sykes explains why they are more likely to notice any small issues: “In a big, normal chaotic sports hall space, the roof and walls are busy, and everyone expects ‘normal’ performance. When it’s highly crafted and refined like this, people just become really attuned to the space.” However, he enthuses “that makes it a great learning project for us.” Luckily, with the lighting being LED, it only needed reprogramming to address the issues. With Oxford University needing to seek fundraising to ensure future phases of the redevelopment meet the level of quality seen here, the client wanted the Sports Centre to be “innovative and inspiring.” It certainly seems to have succeeded on both counts, as “something that people want to invest in and be part of,” says Ben Sykes. He concludes: “We like projects to be challenging in terms of the architecture and planning, and we like to find a client who’s interested and wants to innovate. This one has a bit of everything that we would want.” 


© Diane Auckland


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