-
Architects: Niu Arquitectura
- Area: 0 m²
- Year: 2010
Text description provided by the architects. Spatial Distribution
The project for the Calvià Running Track consists of a track, a services building with stands, a parking area, an access area, and an external cross-training circuit. The main building houses the necessary program to approve the facility for conducting competitions nationally and internationally.
The project is proposed as a linear building, with a uniform section and a length similar to the home stretch. The interior program is organized in a linear sequence of services on the basement level (locker rooms, multipurpose room, infirmary) to be used exclusively by athletes. This sequence of services lies between the access circulation, also linear and parallel to the home stretch, and the covered training area. The training area is a great, tall space, 8 lanes wide, connected to the gym and to the storage room for training material. This training zone is delimited by the two access points from the street, that act as bridges between the exterior and the stands. In these transit spaces, access controls, bar-cafeteria, press room, public restrooms and access to the restricted area for athletes are provided. Over the linear basement that contains the locker rooms and services are the stands, suitable for 900 seats.
The top of the building is finished with the covered stands that dominate the home stretch. The basement level is buried under the resulting topography yielded by the settlement of the track. This achieves a more natural adaptation to the resulting topography, in addition to diminishing the environmental impact of the excavation needed to settle the entire running track. The main access is from two different locations, both on the main facade.
Structural characteristics
The building is designed with a prefabricated structural system of reinforced concrete, with a structural spacing of 6 meters on axis. This system solves the retaining walls, columns, slabs and stands. The roof is constructed from laminated wood beams, approximately 1200 x 115 mm in section, covered by a deck structure on top. The bottom of the roof, at the covered points of entrance and stands, is clad in cellular polycarbonate sheets, hung from the appropriate profiles. Throughout the rest of the building, the roof has other characteristics: at the covered training area and the cafeteria, the roof is made of corrugated, lacquered, perforated sheet metal with mineral wool inside to enhance acoustic absorption; in the rest of the enclosed areas the roof is made of mineralized wood panels to improve acoustic absorption; in the public circulation areas the roof is made of corrugated, lacquered, perforated sheet metal.
The bottom polycarbonate cladding of the roof is used only on the front of the roof that covers the running track and the points of access. This material is also used on the back facade, thus becoming a continuous element that goes through the interior of the building. The cellular polycarbonate makes up the envelope of the main facade, generating a continuous skin through the facade, the roof, and the roof edge. The main facade, as well as the side facades, are covered with a sheet metal ‘deployé’ system. The material is stainless steel, which ensures its good resistance to the marine environment near the area where the building is located.
