As in the rest of the Campus, the building is based on the industrialization and dry assembly of structural systems and metal envelopes to guarantee the sustainability of the complex and comply with the established deadlines. The structure is configured as a framework of metal bars, forming a continuous but broken surface for greater rigidity and internal acoustic behavior.
Julia Powell Sports Hall by Rojo / Fernández-Shaw, arquitectos. Photograph by Luis Asín.
Project description by Rojo / Fernández-Shaw arquitectos
Julia Powell Sports Hall is a multi-purpose sports hall that is part of the new Runnymede College campus, a British education college in Madrid. As a result of an architecture competition, since 2017 we have worked on the construction of the complex as research on the academic space and the configuration of a collective space.
The Runnymede Campus is an open system of pavilions on a 19,895m2 plot, some of which are new builds and others are comprehensive refurbishments of existing structures. As a strategy, we proposed an integration and informal relationship of the parties, in which the constructions and voids delimit the shared spaces and meeting places through alignments, frontalities and always open and incomplete slopes.
At the back of the plot, sports activities are concentrated, forming an area of covered and uncovered enclosures where physical activities and training of different ages can be carried out: from games to training or regulated and federated sports matches.
The Julia Powell Sports Hall responds to the need for an open-plan and multipurpose room, capable of hosting both physical education classes, academic events or exams, meeting the requirements as a federated headquarters for the school volleyball team.
Julia Powell Sports Hall by ROJO / FERNÁNDEZ-SHAW, arquitectos. Photograph by Luis Asín.
Taking as its starting point the use of an existing foundation (the basement of a demolished construction above ground level, but delimited below ground level by a retaining wall that forms a square figure 30 meters on each side), the pavilion is located at a lower level. flush, revealing from the outside only a part of the built volume.
It is made up of a high space (7 free meters) and diaphanous (29 * 15 m), an access hall on two superimposed levels and parallel to the sports court, and a nucleus of changing rooms. The above-ground volume is wrapped with a translucent surface of polycarbonate and perforated galvanized sheet metal, which guarantees natural perimeter lighting, as well as efficient and sustainable environmental control.
As in the rest of the Campus, the building starts from the industrialization and dry assembly of structural systems and metal envelopes, to guarantee the sustainability of the whole and meet the deadlines derived from the activity of the school. The structure is configured as a framework of metal bars, forming a continuous but broken surface for greater rigidity and bracing, as well as better internal acoustic behavior.
