The Optimum Sports Hall..... |
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Optimum Sports Hall: a
benchmark for the design of
future new Sports Halls
Client: Sport England
Architect: Studio E
Structural Engineer: Techniker Ltd
The Optimum Sports Hall project presents a benchmark for the
design of future new Sports Halls to be built in England. The
project, inaugurated by Sport England, set out to achieve high
standards of design, functionality and flexibility in sports hall
facilities while allowing massive savings in time and costs by
providing a basic design and construction principle from which a
sports hall complex for any site can be developed. The result is a
concept structure, built from steel, giving well thought out facilities
that can be flexibly adapted around a 4-court sports hall. The
three basic formats developed - small, medium and large - all
include a sports hall, but offer a varying amount of ancillary
accommodation.
The package for this novel approach to commissioning a sports
hall has been fully developed in such detail that it is sufficient for
tender purposes for non-site specific items. This package is
available to schools, colleges, universities or other organisations for
a nominal fee, which allows the client to reduce consultant fees,
shorten the procurement time, provide benchmark costs and reduce
time on site. To date, four Optimum Sports Halls have been
constructed across England using this innovative steel construction
system.
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During the design process, structural objectives were identified to
ensure that the halls, although steel, would still present elegant
structures, with a lightness of touch and responses in design contributing to
the welcoming ambience needed of buildings that play such an important
role in school, college and community life.
Market forces have dictated that buildings of this type and scale have
generally been designed as portal frames, drawing on agricultural scale
shed structures where simplicity of detail, speed of erection and temporary
stability are priorities. During the design research stage for the sports halls,
portal and braced steel frames were investigated.
Kevin Lyons of Techniker Ltd commented that: “the design team wanted to
challenge the idea that sports halls should be of portal frame construction,
and they did this by using a braced frame which gave a lighter structure
overall, responding well in terms of performance while adding elegance to
the building aesthetic.”
The basic structural form for the sports hall is thus a simple braced steel
frame, with principal steel cross frames at 8.4m centres matching the court
grids. Roof members are lightly curved steel beams that discretely span the
full width of the hall itself. Ancillary roof beams are continuous over their
central support, and propped at either end. Columns are axially loaded by
maintaining physical pin bearings at all connections. Designing a braced
frame allowed Techniker to add to the elegance of the overall structure, by
reducing column sections, and matching structural zones with architectural
zoning. In addition, the braced frame reduced costs and design time by
simplifying foundation solutions.
From concept stage, ease of construction was a clear design goal.
Techniker focused on all details that are used to indicate that the building
went up well, not only to achieve quality of finish, but also to underpin the
importance of buildability.
To this end, detailing of pins at the column heads allowed reduction of
potential moments in the column to only those led by manufacturing and
erection tolerance. Drift holes, included in the head detail as a result of site
feedback, ease the placing of pins at height. The base connections are
detailed with four bolt holes when only two were required structurally, again
as a result of site feedback. The four bolt holes allow the columns to remain
stable during the erection, while the bolt tubes allow the base to be adjusted
to accommodate lack of verticality, and zero tolerance inherent with the pin
connection. Early in the design stage, sketches were produced to
investigate the erection sequence of the whole building. As a result, the
frame was detailed to include temporary bracing lugs for temporary bracing
to be fixed.
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Sports halls require large volumes of space with excellent light and
acoustics, in order for the users to enjoy their activities without distraction. This
kind of environment should not be disordered, as most ball games involve
perceiving and judging movement.
To reduce visually distracting high level clutter, a steel structural deck
solution was selected. The 200mm deep Plannja deck allowed Techniker to
span the 8.4m bays economically while still providing a stiff diaphragm in
the roof plane. The perforated deck also serves to reduce acoustic problems
inherent in steel buildings such as this, where there is by default an
abundance of large, hard surfaces. The regularity of the roof profile also
serves to provide a background that does not distract people playing
badminton and high level ball sports.
Techniker responded with clarity to the client’s brief that any sports hall,
while on site and in use, should show a commitment to the wider issues of
environmental global health. Low energy use, sustainability and harmony of
environmental systems were all key criteria that influenced the design,
materials used and on site construction processes. Whole life costing of these
highly flexible buildings, all developed from the same root stock design
concept, will bring maintenance issues to the fore over time.
Steel was selected as the primary construction material for a number of
reasons, many of which focused upon the benefits that steel plays within the
built environment. Steel is 100 per cent recyclable, and uses minimum volume
of materials in its manufacture. It allows clean, dust free construction
processes, including off site fabrication in a controlled environment, with
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the absolute minimum of waste then created on site. Steel
offers good end of life options, as when any of these sports halls are taken out of use, the building
can be dismantled and re-used/demolished and the construction materials recycled.
The four Optimum Sports Halls constructed to date all adhere to the basic
design and construction principles of the concept scheme, adapted to suit
local site conditions and user criteria.
The Robert Clack School in Dagenham built an Optimum Sports Hall which
has an extended ancillary structure and glazed gables, standing on an
optimum foundation solution. At St Mary’s College, Hull, an extended
ancillary structure sits on a precast concrete floor over a piled foundation
solution. An eight bay sports hall for Langdon School, Newham again utilises
all the main design concepts, but with masonry clad steel frame over a
precast concrete floor. Finally, Fakenham Community Sports Facility, Norfolk
again takes full advantage of the Optimum Sports Hall superstructure, using
strip footings.
Kevin Lyons of Techniker comments: “the benchmark economic solution
should appeal to a variety of institutes across the United Kingdom, as it meets
the criteria set by Sport England and gives an excellent economic solution for
a sports facility.”
Sport England have set out not to find the cheapest solution, but the best
value building overall. With this solution now implemented, the scheme can
now fast-track freely across the United Kingdom via the Sport England lottery
process using the Robert Clack School as a benchmark and the other three
standard halls as hybrids.
The Langdon School in Newham was a NOFF funded project; NOFF have
gained more ability to fund projects as support for Sport England’s scheme
has developed. They have provided the funding for a sports hall for
Wakefield City High School which has recently gone to tender.
Lyons goes onto comment that: “these school community buildings are used
in the day by the schools and in the evenings by the local communities, and
therefore the facilities will benefit all concerned.” Sport England are also
considering adding on health facilities to these buildings in the near future.
This new solution will essentially be marketed by Sport England, who will
provide prospective clients with the design and build specifications,
recommending Techniker to consult on the structural elements of each
building.
It is hoped and anticipated that more and more schools will take up the
concept of the Optimum Sports Hall for the benefit of both scholars and the
people of surrounding areas, many of which may have children attending the
schools.
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