Sporting facilities can play a vital role in the lives of cities by providing multifunctional public spaces where the people can join in large-scale events providing entertainment and spectacle while also promoting well-being and enhancing community engagement. Additionally, well-designed sporting arenas can become icons for a city, creating a sense of pride and identity and attracting visitors and residents. One such example is the Grand Slam tennis tournaments, which take over cities like Paris, London or New York, attracting fans from all around the world. The Philippe Chatrier and greenhouse transformed into the Simonne-Mathieu Tennis Court in Paris have become architectural landmarks, serving as catalysts for urban development and cultural exchange.
Other small-scale venues also play a role in the lives of communities, acting as gathering places for people with shared interests, fostering a sense of belonging and contributing to the overall health of the neighborhoods. This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community that showcase both large and small scale sporting venues. From a ‘box in a box’ basketball pavilion in Greece, to a translucent multi-sports arena in El Salvador or a dune-line arena in Morocco, this selection features projects that encourage and celebrate movement, athleticism and fair play competition.
Read on to discover 9 sport-focused projects, along with their descriptions from the architects.
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The WH-Arena is not just a venue for events, but also a unique architectural masterpiece that blends seamlessly with the environment. The concept focuses on creating a space that prioritizes sustainability and safety, especially in the face of global challenges such as pandemics and terrorism. This arena is a versatile and dynamic space that can adapt to a wide range of event programs, maximizing energy efficiency and sustainability. The WH-Arena is an urban catalyst, an iconic structure that integrates seamlessly into Vienna's cityscape, day and night.
Basketball Pavilion
The New Basketball Pavilion in Nea Styra, Evia, Greece, seamlessly blends into its mountain and seaside setting. Positioned on a plateau between outdoor football fields, this extension of the local Sports Center features a 34 x 34-meter structure divided into distinct sports and seating areas. The seating area is a self-contained "Box in a Box," supported by prominent metal frames, eliminating the need for internal structural elements. With strategically placed openings that maximize natural light and ventilation, the pavilion integrates harmoniously with the landscape. Inside, a central axis and flanking staircases ensure efficient circulation for athletes and visitors.
Iconic Padel Court
Pininfarina has been commissioned by ICONIC to create the Iconic Padel court. The new court takes design for sports to a completely new level, with a customizable interface, modular features and innovative finishings and materials designed for the discerning player, integrating avant-garde design with the industry's most advanced technologies, including the ability to review actions and movements to gather useful data in order to improve game performance.
Santa Tecla Arena
The Santa Tecla Arena proposes a multi-sports and events site, with capacity for 3,000 spectators. The building will be one of the venues for the Santa Tecla 2021 Central American Games in El Salvador. The arena is composed of a large plaza at the highest part of the site that serves as a public access esplanade. The sports and events area is located in the middle part of the site, and the lower part contains the technical areas and parking lot located in the back of the site.
Talar de Pacheco
Ezequiel Amado Cattaneo Arquitectos
The project was born from the initiative of the neighborhood to create a new sports and social area. We developed a building that is implanted towards the northeast, enhancing its orientation and opening up to the best views of its surroundings. The project adapts to the topography, generating and promoting new sports, gastronomic and meeting areas. Exposed concrete, wood and travertine are combined creating a timeless, warm and elegant environment.
Armand Cesari Stadium
We offer a multipurpose stadium, capable of hosting various events and amplifying the warmth of the supporters’ cheers. A magic cauldron where the existing infrastructure is transformed into a new arena, adapted to contemporary standards of video capture, security, and commercial identification. Through this global overhaul of the visual identity, the Armand Cesari stadium is entering a new era, with a strong architectural signature, setting the stadium apart of Furiani by an important symbol and clearly identifiable by all.
The Flying Line Stadium
The Flying Line is an architectural solution that integrates the plots in a natural way to lead to the determining location of Long Beach. The shading structure of the stadium, as a central design element, was inspired by the frequent paragliding activities present in Long Beach. The lightness of this activity is the fuel to the design of the shading structure of the stadium which also is distributed within the site to provide shade as well as a connection throughout the plots.
Dakhla Stadium Proposal
Fayçal El Abed El Alaoui + Saad El Kabbaj + Driss Kettani + Mohamed Amine Siana
The Dakhla Stadium emerges from the landscape and integrates into it so as to recompose it, to complete it. The stadium evokes a revisited dune, seeming to rise from the ground and which protects an airy and naturally ventilated ambulatory. This vast space, located between the underside of the stands and the profile of the dune, constitutes an intermediate zone, protected and pleasant, in which the public can enter in a safe and comfortable way. This sand-colored envelope is enlivened by large curved and organic openings which constitute the main entry points for the public, athletes and officials. These openings, flanked on the four sides of the stadium, enliven the dune and give it an organic formality that blends harmoniously into the landscape.
Sports Hall Cetinje
“Architecture can accelerate alienation or fight against it by being rooted in a place, static in terms of not leaving the motherland - from which, when she leaves - she doesn't know who she is!” - Marc Kushner. The main goal is to design a high-quality, functional and economical solution for a sports hall, which will meet the sports needs of a wide range of users and complement the existing city context. The idea was to create an authentic "house", locally rooted in the place, a nationally aware house, a house with measure.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.
