Dominic Cullinan of SCABAL
Tuesday 16 February 2010, 1:00pm, Forum
Dominic Cullinan of SCABAL presents
Dunraven Sports Hall, Lambeth
Our new sports hall designed for Dunraven School in the London Borough of Lambeth is the first to be built in this way anywhere in the world. We have used sea containers as both structure and internal accommodation to create an extremely simple and cost effective building that captures the participatory excitement of sports. A multi-purpose community facility that gives the school the best indoor sporting environment they could wish for, “so much more than a boring shed”.
The look of the building, is industrial, but SCABAL have designed windows that subtly undermine this using an immediately recognisable back garden architectural motif: the greenhouse; continued internally with the trowel and the wheelbarrow. The glazing allows glimpses of activity within the Hall from the outside, connecting the building with the outside – something too often lacking in the ubiquitous brick box Sports Hall.
The carefully considered orientation of the building, the north elevation’s arrangement of translucent polycarbonate panels and clear glazing, and the alignment of the ‘greenhouses’ with the internal openings in the galleries; all allow the interior to be flooded with natural daylight. This also makes the space suitable for exams, assemblies and other events.
At night, when the Hall becomes available for community use as a sports facility or a multi-purpose hall, this composition of openings makes the street frontage of the building glow while the lit-up window shapes around the sides further animate the form.
Chaired by Geoff Shearcroft / AOC
www.scabal.net
www.theaoc.co.uk
