New Sports Hall Extension, Schoonmeersen Campus, Flanders Education Building News
New Sports Hall Extension at University HOGENT Ghent
15 Dec 2020
University HOGENT New Sports Hall Extension
Design: SADAR + VUGA d.o.o. with LENS°ASS Architecten
Location: HOGENT campus Schoonmeersen, Voskenslaan 364A, Belgium
Phone: +32 9 243 20 04
The new building for the Faculty of Social Work (Building T) and the New Sports Hall Extension at Kampus Schoonmeersen of University HOGENT in Ghent, Belgium, were completed in September 2020. The buildings are now opened to the public with limited access due to the coronavirus.
The new sports hall becomes a northern gate to the campus. Its monolithic volume is on the northern side lifted up, opening its interior sports ground to a viewing from the surrounding.
Namely, an englazed stripe under the cantilevered volume unveils activities indoor to by-passers, drivers, and visitors of the campus. A careful dimensioning of the stripe as well as its connection to a campus pedestrian route triggers a curiosity of by-passers and attracts them to enter the building. Once inside, a ramp, an access to stands in the cantilevered level, becomes a deviation of the campus pedestrian route, creating a public promenade through the building.
A visual connection between outside and inside which happens on the sports ground is interrupted by positioning the level of the stands in the cantilevered part of the volume: here the main focus of spectators is sports or entertaining event on the sports ground and there should be no visual obstacles.
The new sports hall takes advantage of the existing structure: what is there already should be reused and adapted with minimum interventions. Therefore the core space at the end of the existing building gets extended and adapted to house new administration, the gym, and the meeting and social areas. It becomes a mediator between the new and the existing sports hall. Its exterior facade becomes the interior wall of the new sports hall.
The monolithic volume of the new sports hall is fairly simple, compact, non-structured, and almost abstract.
The wrap of the volume is non-neutral. Its semi-reflective concave/convex surface mediates the happenings in its immediate surroundings into the building, creating a context’s blurred and twisted appearance and emphasizing its dynamics.
Movement of trains, people passing by, or athletes on running tracks reflected in the building surface, together with a projection of the interior sports events, create an ever-changing appearance of the building. Thus, the monolithic volume of the new sports hall becomes a presentation device of the sports atmosphere of the campus.
Ghent New Sports Hall Extension Campus Schoonmeersen – Building Information
Design: SADAR + VUGA d.o.o. with LENS°ASS Architecten
Type: sports, education, culture
Source: Open Call invited competition, 1st prize
Client: HOGENT, Ghent, Belgium
Location: Ghent, Belgium
Total floor area: 2.597 sqm
Site area: 3.731 sqm
Structure: reinforced concrete, steel structure
Architects: SADAR+VUGA
(Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Miha Čebulj, Mirjam Milič, Grega Mervič)
STUDIO LENS°ASS
(Bart Lens, Thijs Prinsen, Sönke Timm)
Construction consulting: Atelier One + Bureau Partners nv
Acoustics: Daidalos-Peutz
Landscape: Snoeck & Partners nv
Photos: Julien Lanoo
Ghent New Sports Hall Extension Campus Schoonmeersen images / information from SADAR + VUGA Arhitekti
Previously on e-architect:
26 Apr 2012
University College Ghent
Campus Schoonmeersen
Design: SADAR + VUGA d.o.o. with LENS°ASS Architecten
image © SADAR + VUGA
University College Ghent
Campus Schoonmeersen Ghent : further information
Location: Gent, Belgium, western Europe
Belgian Architecture
Belgium Architecture Designs – architectural selection below:
Belgian Architectural Designs – chronological list
A recent Ghent Building design on e-architect:
Waalse Krook
Design: UNStudio
Waalse Krook Gent
Another Ghent Building on e-architect:
Production Studios
Design: Jan De Vylder architecten
Ghent Production Studios
Antwerp Port Authority headquarters
Design: Zaha Hadid Architects
Antwerp Port House
Library of the Future, Kortrijk
Design: REX
Kortrijk Library
Comments / photos for the University Hogent in Ghent Schoonmeersen Campus page welcome