Innovative sports hall concepts

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.

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”. Casper Lindemann, Denmark Casper is a consultant to the National Olympic Committee and Sports Confederation of Denmark.

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 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.

Casper: In these small school sports halls especially, there was no room for the sports club, no space for gatherings, or for having a good time before or after sport. Users felt as if they were visiting somebody else’s place and did not feel at home. Going to a sports club is much more than a matter of taking exercise. The aspect of socialising is something we need to focus on from now on. To create effective cooperation among the various users, we should bring everybody together.

Harald: From a project I’m involved in in Hamburg, Germany, I can say that the users in Hamburg have round table meetings regularely. What is the situation in Denmark?

Casper: A lot of places don’t have enough room for their equipment. You have to use the same equipment and then you have discussions when something’s damaged. Who did it? Also the cleaning – who’s responsible? Our project wants people to come together and discuss the best solution for all user groups. It is not only about how you build a facility, for you also need the people to cooperate.

Harald: Thank you for stressing the social side. Sport brings us together. In the future, even more so than today, it will be increasingly important to understand that we are building not only sports halls, but also social spaces. To my mind, this is something that we can learn from the Nordic countries.

Daniel: I totally agree with the point of sports halls being a place for people to come together. Another aspect I’d like to highlight is the way we use the space. We should make use of every available space. There are rooms used only temporarily, at certain times of the day – the locker rooms for example. Why not use them for other activities, such as yoga classes? If you consider a greater variety of usage, you have to rethink the design. I am convinced it really is possible to use every space for different activities at different times. Harald: We are already on the way to rethinking the design of the sports hall itself and the storage room, but have to look at all the other rooms as well. Should the locker room conform to the same concept as in the last 30 or 50 years? And talking of spaces and sizes and space requirements, what kind of modules do we need? Is there a mimimum of space required?

Oliver: The basic sports hall design hasn’t changed over the past 100 years. The traditional concept was dedicated to elite sports, for those who are interested in competition. User behaviour however has changed, as have our exercising habits. This calls for development and change. We have to consider different user groups, and not only elite athletes but also those seeking exercise, for health reasons, who want to socialise or to progess on a personal level. We already have halls and my wish is that we can keep them for elite sports practitioners. How can we create environments that comply with today’s needs instead of the full-scale sports hall? We need alternatives to meet changing requirements. Today, people are looking for physical exercise that differs a great deal from what is offered on the handball court in the sports halls on 20 x 40 m.

Harald: The idea of rethinking the dimensions of a sports hall is revolutionary. I believe that the courts for elite sports will always exist in some form, but there are moves to rescale and sometimes downsize the courts. Can you describe the process?

Daniel: We talked to schools and teachers and met with the representatives of five sports federations to find out how we can design a sports hall that meets the requirements for school sport, organised sport and even non-organised sport. We suggest building a sports hall a little larger than the traditional size but offering a lot more opportunities for more activities. For a little extra expense you get a lot more activities. Our idea is to divide the hall into two areas, the area for organised sport with standard line markings, and space for free activities, all in the same room. And then you can divide this space into different sections, depending on which group is using the facility. The size that we proposed in our paper is about 46 x 32 m, for a school with about 1,200 pupils.

Photo: LOA-Fonden, Leif Tuxen

Harald: When redimensioning the hall, will one of the subdivided areas still measure 20 x 10 m, or are you considering even smaller areas?

Daniel: This depends on who will use the hall; you have to look at the local context. You can subdivide the hall into the required spaces, by using partitions or similar solutions.

Harald: Do you recommend any minimum sizes or a certain ratio in square metre per person?

Casper: This was the way we used to calculate. We used to work with standards. In Denmark, all school gyms look the same, meaning designed for the same activities. But we should give much more consideration to the activities the hall is actually needed for. Some people want to practice yoga, some want to play ball games – it depends on the context on site.

When building a completely new sports hall, you can design a large sports hall, with the option to subdivide it, just like Daniel proposed. In our project “Old sports halls, new opportunities“, we analyse how to optimise the qualities of small sports halls.

Daniel: A new building should serve school sport as well as organised and non-organised sport. The hall must be large enough for organised sport. By using the facility in different ways, you can use it for different activities. If the facility is too small for organised sport, you will have to build a second one. It is better to build a bit larger from the start than to adapt afterwards.

Harald: In Austria, there is a tendency to build not a single large hall, but rather three small ones. What are the factors contributing to the decision?

Oliver: We are in the lucky position of knowing much more about the population’s preferred activities than 15 years ago. Today, local government officials have much more knowledge and are aware of what is going on in their environment so that we can rely on their expertise. Our main role is to move away from the notion of deciding what to build at the beginning of the process. In the early stage, we should instead analyse local needs. If there is a large sports hall in the neighbourhood, do we have to build another one or can we have something that fills a gap?

Harald: What will there be in ten years? Does the future user already exist in your considerations?

Casper: It is crucial to bring together everybody who is involved, to listen to each other and understand each other. We do not know what will happen in 20 years. Ten years ago, no one in Denmark was aware of padel tennis – now everyone wants it. Therefore the approach needs to be as multifunctional and flexible as possible.

In our project, we bring together architects, teachers and clubs. Even within a club there are different user groups. There are the ones who want to compete, while others just want to have fun. Toddlers have other needs than teenagers or seniors. It is difficult to have a place that suits all ages. If you want schools and clubs to come together, you need to look at children’s needs.

Harald: Will there be a change in specific building materials for floors, ceilings and walls?

Daniel: When we started discussing sports flooring, our federation could not agree on recommendations, this is why we excluded this issue from our paper (laughs). I think an important factor regarding the material is that it allows you to use it, to integrate the wall, the ceiling, in your activities. When I was younger and played volleyball, we were not allowed to play in the corridor due to the risk of damaging the roof. It is a pity that this potential was wasted. I’d say that you should consider using all rooms for all types of activities at all times when you choose the material.

Harald: Is a universal material the answer?

Oliver: Robust, adaptable environments are needed from now on. We need to step back from the idea that we can build everything today that we will need in the future. It

Photo: LOA-Fonden, Rune Johansen

Photo: LOA-Fonden, Rune Johansen Photo: Leif Tuxen

is more a question of development plans, instead of predefined facilities that are difficult to adjust. High-quality material tends to be more robust and less demanding of maintenance.

We have to accept that, over time, spaces need to be adapted and have different functions. Quality is what counts. We must not simply create multifunctional places that are “okay” for everyone. We have to work on the spaces, it is an ongoing process. Progressive facility leaders in Denmark understand that you cannot stand still, you have to develop your facility constantly. That does not necessarily mean that you have to build all the time. You need to improve the programming.

Casper: Highest quality is not always necessary, for we should consider what is needed in daily life. Artificial turf pitches for example are used for soccer but also for hockey and other sports.

Harald: Do you agree that we might have two different standards, one for elite sports and one for sports for all?

Oliver: In the project I’m involved in we have committed to heavy-duty flooring that can be easily adapted. The dance group can remove the versatile flooring within a short time, because it is integrated in the design. Some dancers want to slide on the floor, while other sports have entirely different demands. The flooring has to be functional for all user groups, otherwise it is not attractive and we do not achieve our goals. So sometimes the solution might be an easily adaptable floor like a roll-out dance floor integrated in the design of the building.

Harald: Do you think the respective positions of schools and clubs is obvious to everyone?

Daniel: I can say that in general school sports and organised sports pursue more or less the same goals. There may however be potential on the client’s side. Municipalities rely on standards based on the needs for elite sports. There is a long way to go to free ourselves from the standards and think outside the box. We need to have a different mindset when considering a sports hall from the beginning. Oliver: I’d like to come back to the point of who is the host of the facility and who is the guest. I suggest developing a concept of shared ownership. When do we stop arguing about storage rooms, about equipment usage? It is about ownership, and it is about coding. This is where the architects come in, to create the atmosphere.

Casper: In Copenhagen, the municipality has a policy that a large sports hall must be built every time that a new school is to be built. The sports hall has to serve both the school and the sports clubs. All groups are invited at an early stage of the process to find out if there are options for shared usage – for example, if the room where pupils do their homework can later be used by a club as a meeting room.

Harald: Is it an option to question the coding?

Daniel: I’d rather consider our work as a source of inspiration rather than as another code. We want to provide ideas, although we have recommendations on sizes. If the conditions are different, you have to adapt to them.

Oliver: This is our goal as well. The foundation I work for wants to help start the discussion and facilitate dialogue.

Harald: To sum it up, what is your main point, your most important learning from the process?

Daniel: Always ask how we can get the maximum use out of every bit of space in the sports hall: the corridors, the locker rooms, the social areas, the sports hall itself. Rethink the dimensions. A small change in the size and a little extra money may result in many more options regarding activities. In the end, this is less investment than building two facilities.

Oliver: Smart usage of every square metre starts with the question on what buildings already exist in the neighbourhood. How can we adapt them from the point of view of sustainablity? How can we make use of the quality of the already available buildings?