A major new-build sports building in Portsmouth by FaulknerBrowns Architects and Max Fordham has set a new environmental benchmark with an operational energy consumption of less than 100 kWh/m²/yr.
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Richard Chivers, Hufton+Crow
Designed by FaulknerBrowns Architects, in close collaboration with Max Fordham, Ravelin Sports Centre provides a range of leisure and sports facilities for both the University of Portsmouth and the wider city. The ultra-low-energy building includes a 25-metre swimming pool, an eight-court sports hall, a 175-station fitness suite, multifunctional studios, climbing and bouldering facilities, squash courts, a ski simulator, teaching facilities, and office space.
Located on the edge of Ravelin Park, the fitness suite, studios and sports hall are positioned along the hard urban side of the site, while the swimming pool overlooks the park, giving the impression of swimming among the trees. Uninterrupted glazing at ground level provides views into the active spaces, engaging students and passers-by, as well as ensuring good levels of daylighting.
The entrance eschews barriers and turnstiles with the aim of encouraging people to wander through the building and discover different sporting activities. Glazed internal walls allow café customers to view both the swimming pool and gym. The main staircase leads visitors past an open climbing and bouldering wall.
To achieve a transparent ground plane, the enclosed sports hall has been elevated to the first floor and clad (at the lower level) with terracotta ‘baguettes’ in varying natural tones to evoke the colours of surrounding buildings. Above this, the sports hall façade is expressed by a skin of reflective metal panels that blend subtly with the sky.
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The three principal sports spaces each have their own distinctive architectural character, while sharing the same material palette. The sports hall is a tall, top-lit, timber-lined box. Giant cooling fans set within a timber-lined ceiling define the fitness suite. The swimming pool is naturally lit from both sides and above, with timber soffits marking the perimeter of the water. Overlooking the key sports areas are ‘fringe’ spaces where people can meet, socialise or study – the aim being to break down barriers to participation. The changing rooms are accessible to all, with choices for different levels of privacy rather than separating all the facilities by gender.
The building incorporates a range of passive and active environmental technologies, including a compact building form and efficient external envelope to minimise heat loss; extensive natural lighting; the use of solar gain to help heat the swimming pool; natural and mixed-mode ventilation; heating from air source heat pumps and heat recovery from cooling and ventilation systems and waste pool water; and a bio-solar roof with a 1000-square-metre photovoltaic array generating 224MWhs of renewable energy per year. automatic system controls for heating, cooling, ventilation and lighting; and the recycling of pool water for changing facilities.
Intensive post-occupancy monitoring and user feedback have been used to fine tune systems and controls for optimum comfort and energy efficiency. In the first six months since opening, the data has shown that the building’s operational energy consumption is less than 100 kWh/m²/yr, which is around one-tenth of the energy demand of an equivalent sports centre.
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Source: Architecture Today