Dolní Břežany Sports Hall
Designed by Sporadical, a Prague-based architecture practice, the Dolní Břežany Sports Hall in the Czech Republic is a new gymnasium and community space. The new sports hall, which adjoins with Dolní Břežany Primary School, can be used by the school for physical education classes and is also open to the public for sports activities, as well as a cultural venue.
Situated on the edge of a built up area, in the centre of a larger development zone, the sports hall is described as ‘an attractive architectural concept – a spatial rotational ellipsoid form – a response to both current requirements and an unknown future.’
The hall has a rounded, smooth and abstract shape to it. The dome draws the scale closer to people, while the metallic surface mirrors the surroundings with the borders of the sky and roof remaining blurred. The building camouflages its real dimensions and looks smaller than it is in reality. The wide staircase in the front of the hall, which is embedded into the terrain like the building itself, defines the public space and creates a natural amphitheatre.
While the exterior distinguishes the sports hall from the school, the interior blends with it using a combination of white and grey surfaces and solid timber. The entrance for visitors is perpendicular to the street and the parking lot, the west facing sliding window with a view to the town, provides a connection with the school yard, and the east facing window is a peek into the future. The hall is integrated into the school by means of a walkway. The heart of the hall is a sports surface of 4×25 meters and 8-9 metres high, vertically divided into three parts using mobile blinds. Each of the thirds fits a volleyball court with the division making it possible to run three PE classes in parallel. The changing rooms are situated on the school side, on the ground floor, and wall bars divide them from the sports area. The machine room and offices are on the first floor. On the audience side, there is a grandstand for 250 spectators, located above storage rooms for sports equipment and other facilities. A gangway connecting the two parts of the grandstand overlooks an open vestibule with snack bar. The Les Kanců graphic design studio designed an original signage system for the sports halls, consisting of pictograms and numbers hand-painted directly on the walls made of architectural concrete.
The construction of the hall combines arched walls made of load-bearing reinforced concrete and a spatial steel latticed roof construction with bent truss frames and a width space of up to 44 metres. The façade is made of PREFA ridge shingles made of natural aluminium and the surface of the roof section with light tubes is covered by a white Firestone UltraPly TPO waterproof membrane. A number of acoustic measures have also been applied in the hall to achieve the necessary reverberation time and good speech clarity.
The inauguration and operation of the hall can serve as a stimulus and inspiration for the further growth of the municipality, which is why the connection to the surroundings and the public space is as important as the natural link with the primary school. Having undergone radical changes in the last few years, Dolní Břežany is a modern and attractive place for living. The municipality has been very active in cultivating the public space for the long term and architecture and town planning aspects are a major focus when considering new projects. Dolní Břežany is located in central Bohemia in the country of Prague-West and is spread over an area of 1,066 hectares whilst incorporating the villages of Lhota, Zálepy and Jarov. Dolní Břežany borders Prague but it is also a natural centre for other municipalities located above the Vltava River Valley.
