Photos: FG+SG – Fotografia de Arquitectura
Our approach to the design of the N10-Eiras indoor sports facility was triggered by a delicate negotiation between physical, budgetary, and material limitations with a strong commitment to create a symbiotic relation between the new elements and the existing structure.
Hence, the project began taking shape after two straightforward decisions. On the one hand the location of the two indoor football fields was determined by the physical characteristics of the existing industrial storage hangar. On the other hand, to accommodate the ancillary spaces, required in the clients’ brief, (reception, changing rooms and showers, and a party room), we designed a detached pavilion that organizes the two main areas at both sides of the reception space, which is also where the entrance is located.
The new volume thus created occupies the entire width of the existing hangar, and its own width results from the subtraction of the football field from the hangar’s total length. The building system defines the materialization of the volume. A porticoed frame made of American pine wood beams and columns creates the basic structure. The infill of this structure, both in the roof as in the walls, is made through the use of MDF boards, assembled in such a way as to perform both structural and formal roles in the overall construction. The raw use of MDF boards is followed by a plain use of white ceramic tiles in the changing rooms and showers, and by designing the furniture components, which are also made of raw pine wood elements and black lacquered MDF panels. The layout of the illumination devices was designed in order to explore an intense and expressive plasticity out of the volume's formal and material characteristics. A tunnel-like element pierces the pavilion's existing wall to announce in the outside the entrance to the facility.
Hence, the project began taking shape after two straightforward decisions. On the one hand the location of the two indoor football fields was determined by the physical characteristics of the existing industrial storage hangar. On the other hand, to accommodate the ancillary spaces, required in the clients’ brief, (reception, changing rooms and showers, and a party room), we designed a detached pavilion that organizes the two main areas at both sides of the reception space, which is also where the entrance is located.
The new volume thus created occupies the entire width of the existing hangar, and its own width results from the subtraction of the football field from the hangar’s total length. The building system defines the materialization of the volume. A porticoed frame made of American pine wood beams and columns creates the basic structure. The infill of this structure, both in the roof as in the walls, is made through the use of MDF boards, assembled in such a way as to perform both structural and formal roles in the overall construction. The raw use of MDF boards is followed by a plain use of white ceramic tiles in the changing rooms and showers, and by designing the furniture components, which are also made of raw pine wood elements and black lacquered MDF panels. The layout of the illumination devices was designed in order to explore an intense and expressive plasticity out of the volume's formal and material characteristics. A tunnel-like element pierces the pavilion's existing wall to announce in the outside the entrance to the facility.
Bibliography
Full photo coverage of this project on the site of FG+SG Architectural Photography.
On print:
a+t Reclaim, Reuse, Recycle, 39/40, 2012, pp. 166-167 ss.
Online:
Published online on Divisare/Europaconcorsi, 26-09-2012; Dezeen, 13-10-2012; Archdaily, 07-03-2013; Público P3, 12-04-2013.
On print:
a+t Reclaim, Reuse, Recycle, 39/40, 2012, pp. 166-167 ss.
Online:
Published online on Divisare/Europaconcorsi, 26-09-2012; Dezeen, 13-10-2012; Archdaily, 07-03-2013; Público P3, 12-04-2013.
Prizes / Awards
Winner of the Portuguese National Prize for Architecture in Wood 2013, granted by Autoridade Florestal Nacional.