Sports Centre Neumatt
The 3-pitch sports centre Neumatt in central Switzerland is not one of the many standard-looking sports halls across Europe. Inside, it is a true colour burst of green, yellow, red, orange and blue. Children are the centre’s biggest users; therefore the colour is used both decoratively and as a navigation device. Changing rooms are coloured rather than numbered, and each shower room is a simple concrete and wood design that is enlivened by bright primary shades.
Natural light also plays an important role. The glazed upper level delivers ample light and, because of its scale, a real sense of being part of the outdoors. Often sports centres can be simple and dark spaces that provide required functions, but don’t inspire or motivate people to spend time there. By designing a bright sports hall flooded with daylight, the architects want to encourage people to spend more time doing sports and truly enjoy being there.
Colour is particularly important in the design, because the building itself is very simple in both construction and materials in order to meet a key component of the brief: the centre was commissioned by the local municipality by raising taxes, therefore cost efficiency was a key consideration.
The new sports centre is built to the highest international ecological and sustainability standards. The upper floor uses a special capillary glass that maximizes thermal insulation, but also delivers optimum natural light and minimizes glare, ensuring that artificial light is rarely needed. There is no air-conditioning, instead a geothermal heat pump, which uses naturally existing heat from below ground to heat the building in winter and cool it in summer.
Externally, the centre is surrounded by schools, sport fields and low rise housing. The site slopes slightly and the design accommodates this by being higher at one end than the other. The façade has been designed to blend in, with an upper glazed level that reflects the sky and changes the colour depending on the time of day. The stucco base features a pattern of sporting icons, creating a unique visual identity for the building.
