Dunraven’s Sports Hall / Scabal

Jun Keung Cheung

The idea of using recycled shipping containers is becoming a growing trend as the crates are strong, efficient and inexpensive materials.  We’ve featured a few cargo projects in the past for retail designs like LOT-EK’s Puma City, office spaces such as the first in Seattle by HyBrid Architecture + Assembly, plus the artist residences for Pier 57 in New York, all featured previously on AD.  Now, the use of containers has spread to the education sector as Scabal has completed a sports hall for Dunraven secondary school in Streatham, London.  Working with a limited budget and the pressing demand of the clients to produce a “new building of architectural distinction”, Scabal decided that using shipping containers would fulfill both requests.

More about the sports hall after the break.

Jun Keung Cheung

In a mere three days, the containers for the three sides of the Dunraven hall were stacked high, providing a full height gym for the athletes.. The fourth side, the one that addresses the main road is composed of a wall of translucent polycarbonate.  A roof spans on steel trusses to cover the inner athletic hall.

Jun Keung Cheung

But merely stacking the used crates was half the battle.  Scabal wanted to create a sports hall that would celebrate the school but more importantly, the materials of the building, yet not in the conventional way.  The stacked cargo crates were cut into as large windows on the exterior of the containers provide views to the sporting activities and allow natural light to fill the gym.  Interior cuts create a viewing balcony condition where athletes can watch their competitors and learn from their peers.

Jun Keung Cheung

Scabal “introduced an intermediary scale between that of the individual building block and that of the building as a whole by painting the outside of the containers in four colors.”  The four distinct colors break the large mass into four smaller parts or corners. This approach “does lend the building a more approachable scale” almost as if four smaller building were being pushed together to form one major hall.

Although the use of using recycled containers is nothing new, Scabal took the sporting hall to the next level by working with the material, color and voids to create a great atmosphere for young athletes.

Jun Keung Cheung

Jun Keung Cheung

As seen on bd reported by Ellis Woodman.

Architect Scabal

Client Dunraven School

Structural engineer Furness Partnership

Mechanical & electrical engineer CBG Consultants

Quantity surveyor Keegans

Principal contractor Container City – Urban Space Management

Planning supervisor Baily Garner