Queens Centre Sports
The Queens Centre sports complex is located near the Bellver woodland in Bonanova, a neighbourhood in Palma de Mallorca. The centre has been created to serve Queens College; an international school situated a few meters away from the sports complex.
The plot has a downward gradient towards the Bellver woodland. One of the main objectives of the project has been to integrate the building into the environment and to reduce its presence when viewed from the access street, allowing visuals towards Bellver Castle. The presence of the castle has been considered at all times throughout the creation of the project.
The sports complex is half-buried in the topography and it has been decided to place the football pitch in the area closest to the street, leaving the pool, gym and other facilities in the lower area of the plot. This topographic manipulation allows for the creation of a roof which can be utilized for sports purposes, under which the sports complex is located, without interfering with the nearby woodland.
Access to the building is provided via a path that runs down the side to a small exterior hall, where we discover the great void of the pool. It creates an unexpected and surprising effect. Light floods the space from the facades of glass walls. The wood panelling of the ceilings is present as a unifying element of all the different, complex spaces; such as the swimming pool, the multifunctional room, the multipurpose room, the access, and the personal training room.
The different spaces are distributed around a white box, where the changing rooms are located, and from which you access the pool and the remainder of the multifunctional spaces. The distribution of the building has been created based on simplicity and efficiency, and by placing the changing rooms in the centre, from which you can access the different rooms where sports activities take place.
A porch and stands, which offer shade over the pool, can be accessed from the football pitch. The flooring of the stands and the porch of the first floor have been unified with the football pitch to transmit a sense of continuity between outdoor and covered spaces. External paths that surround the pool have been created, from which you can observe the aquatic activities. A ramp goes up to the roof of the building from where you can observe Bellver Castle and all the surrounding woodland.
The entire building is planned with continuous outdoor paths on which to practice sports. The facades have been covered with cypress wood slats placed at the apex, which produce a dynamism of light vibrations and shadows that change throughout the day. The multifunctional room is connected to the pool space. Successions of planes, spaces and transparencies are enriched by the diversity of complex geometry, and by the variety of views that the different spaces offer.
An air chamber with cross ventilation between opposite facades located between the false ceiling and the roof is provided to dissipate heat in summer. Double insulation on the roof allows for the optimization of hygrometric conditions within the pool enclosure.
The curtain wall is large and is composed of low-emissivity glass and with solar control supported by an aluminium frame with thermal break.
The building’s facilities area is located in the basement that surrounds the sides of the pool, allowing for ease of maintenance of the centre’s facilities.
The building’s fold-like structure is composed of steel with composite slabs and trusses that adapt to the complex spatial geometry of the sports centre.
The design of the building and its architecture allows for an optimization of energy resources and a minimization of the building’s energy consumption while incorporating sustainable materials and high-efficiency facilities.
