Slideshow: a rainbow of coloured panels extend up from a concrete base to form the walls of this sports hall in A Coruña.

Designed by Spanish architect José Ramón Garitaonaindía de Vera, the Arteixo sports centre contains a single games hall, surrounded by changing rooms, toilets and other facilities.

The walls of the building enclose a small square courtyard near to the entrance lobby, as well as another stretching alongside the games hall.

An external staircase leads up to a first floor terrace, where visitors can observe activities taking place inside.

You can read more stories about design for sports here, including our recent story about a concrete gymnasium with a windowless yellow facade.

Photography is by Hector Santos-Díez.

Here's some more information from the architect:

Arteixo Sport Centre

In a parcel with a regular and flat shape, with a river within its boundaries, stands the Arteixo Sport Center. To the North it faces the municipal pool, to the South is bounded with another parcel owned by the same Partial Plan. In West direction lies to the road known as “Travesia dos colexios” and this which provides access to the Sports Center. Finally the river sets the limits to the East.

At first sight, Arteixo appears as the clearly defined things do, denying some common places about oneself. Quick architectures which, despite all, stand the test of time.

The assignment of a unique building in a consolidated urban area, the configuration of the site, limits on the scope and the characteristics of a project, which use conforms their own position in the plan, leads us to a regular configuration without stringency to facilitate its operation.

The Sports Centers have an urban dimension relatively aggressive due to its scale. We propose a support area that wraps the main track to achieve the appropriate scale transition within the ambit.

Furthermore, these facilities are usually dark places, so we opt for a box beams structure in the longitudinal direction to the track, so that receives North light, optimal for the game, and South light nuanced through translucent polycarbonate in that box beams.

In another vein, following the path started long ago, Arteixo Sport Center arises as a rainbow, using this metaphor to explain the final result: the rainbow that amazes us, that comes and dazzles us with his presence and that leaves no one indifferent.

Therefore the material used for the facade is the U-glass overhead on wooden panels painted in colours.

Architectures is always designed for the user, which is the only possible way to reach its completion, its public use more domestic and why not, the always intrinsic illusions to the path laid out time ago, make the work ringworm of all colors.

This is the most personal project because it wants to present an illusion: it's like a dream and my journey.

The building stands on a concrete base that enhances the already lightweight facades; the color closing through the U-glass that surrounds it allows it to be visible during the day in a diffused way and nights throught some projectors indicating to the public when there are important events in the sports center, establishing beyond their own use directly relationship to the urban environment in which it sits.

We propose a courtyard in the longitudinal direction with the intention that the vegetation can enter in the building.

Take special relevance the terraces that can be accessed from the outside. These increases the capacity of sports center because from them you can also see the play área while are a outside balcony from where one sees Arteixo.

The structure of the service area is concrete, the floors of prefabricated slabs and fencing, also a concrete wall with plasterboard cladding and insulation. The structure was solved by parallel trusses on steel columns HEB-300. The metal structure reveals further the intrinsic character of the work in this case subject to a universe where color has filled all space.

As for the covers will be of three types. Practicable prefabrication concrete panels of 8 cm thick and not pratical, finished in stainless Steel dual finish autoprotected impermeable sheet.

For pavements, including bleachers, used industrial recycled oak parquet of 2.4 cm thick. This choice of runway pavement and the grandstand provides a continuity not only of the material also visual for the viewer, and establishing a closer relationship with the game.

Light floods for color loose in the environment and strain from the outside.

There have been many that over time have found in the rainbow a source of inspiration for their work. Remember to Raymond Queneau in Exercices of Style, 1947 or Terencio Formenti in his Poems book carried by the wind.

Architect: José Ramón Garitaonaindía de Vera
Location: Avenida de Arsenio Iglesias, Arteixo, A Coruña, Spain.

Project Team: Montserrat Neira, Omar Curros.
Clients: Concello de Arteixo (Arteixo City Council)

Project Square Footage: 1,527 m2
Site Area: 3,150 m2
Completed: 2011

Structural Engineers: Jorge Aragón Fitera.
Contractor: Construcciones Riotorto S.L.
Budget: 2,293,128 milliones de Euros.

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