Photo: Casper Lindemann
Rendering: TRANSFORM
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX INNOVATIVE SPORTS HALL CONCEPTS
Harald Fux, Austria Harald is an architect and the founder and owner of the Raumkunst practice. He chairs the IAKS Expert Circle on Sports Halls and is President of IAKS Austria.
Casper Lindemann, Denmark Casper is a consultant to the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark.
Daniel Glimvert, Sweden Daniel is responsible for all areas concerning sports and leisure facilities at the Swedish Gymnastics Federation. He is co-author of a study on “The sports hall of the future”.
Oliver Vanges, Denmark Oliver works as development consultant to the Danish Foundation for Culture and Sports Facilities. Together, Casper and Oliver are leading the project “Old sports halls – new opportunities” that will develop, test and show how to rebuild and transform old sports halls.
Since its foundation in April 2019, the IAKS Expect Circle on Sports Halls has been discussing ideas and models for making the traditional, team-sports oriented sports hall more suitable for today’s users who want to practise their physical activity in smaller groups or individually. There is a clear need for adaptable, modularised and mobilised exercise spaces that are in the right balance with standard sports halls. In January 2022 the four experts exchanged their opinions on several questions: How can an active lifestyle be fostered by appropriate spatial structures? How can such a lifestyle even be “created”? Where are spaces for exercise located? And, above all, how can they be made accessible to everyone? Harald: Why did you start questioning the traditional sports hall model? Oliver: In Denmark, the campaign “Old sports halls – new opportunities” that Casper and I are involved in is focused on school sports halls measuring 10 x 20 m. It is the most common type of indoor facility in Denmark – there are 1,800 totally identical ones across Denmark, but many of these facilities are underused. They are just not attractive to the public. In terms of leisure, they are never the preferred facility. Harald: How did you measure this underusage? Oliver: There are different ways of measuring it. To my mind, it is not sufficient to look only at the booked times 14
in the sports halls. A lot of bookings are not used. We have to evaluate actual sports hall use. Some counts are done manually, some electronically. All the data indicated that these sports halls are underused, especially after school hours. Harald: How is the situation in Sweden? Daniel: I’ve seen pictures from the early 20th century, and I must say that 21st-century sports halls still look the same. But sport and the way we take physical exercise have changed a lot. We need to modernise sports halls to serve schools as well as organised and non-organised sports. How can they be accommodated in the same building? We analyse every part of the facility because we need a lot of users at the same time to make sports halls financially sustainable. sb 1/2022
