Fontys Sports College in Eindhoven, Sporthogeschool Holland, Mecanoo Building Design, Architect
Fontys Sports College, Eindhoven : Sporthogeschool
Higher Education Building in The Netherlands – design by Mecanoo
4 Oct 2013
Fontys Sports College
WAF Awards 2013 Completed Building Schools winner
World Architecture Festival Awards
26 Oct 2012
Fontys Sporthogeschool
Fontys Sports College – A new beacon for the top sports city of Eindhoven
Design: Mecanoo
photo : Christian Richters
Delft, 26 October, 2012 – Sport encourages friendship and solidarity and serves as an inspiration. Sport is healthy, relaxing, and above all, fun. This is evident in the sports college that Mecanoo architecten was commissioned to build by the council of Eindhoven and Fontys University of Applied Sciences on the Genneper Parken ‘sports estate’ in Eindhoven.
The 16,500 m² sports complex opened on Thursday 25 October 2012. The event was celebrated by many renowned Dutch sporting personalities, including recent Olympic medal winners Marleen Veldhuis, Ranomi Kromowidjojo and Marianne Vos. The state-of-the-art complex accommodates educational facilities for 2,000 students, five sports halls, a climbing wall, a restaurant and an underground car park with 200 parking places.
photograph : Christian Richters
Walking or jogging through the Genneper Parken you’ll immediately notice the new sports college. Sporting figures are incorporated in the dark brick walls – a swimmer, a footballer, a hockey player. Behind a completely glass facade of the ground floor you can see students and athletes actively engaged in sport against a background of brightly coloured walls with graphics of sporting icons.
The crowning glory of the building is the fifteen-metre high climbing wall with an enormous window behind which you can see the climbers making their way up. As the project architect Ellen van der Wal from Mecanoo says: “This building breathes sport from every pore.”
photo : Christian Richters
The building is a crucial link in the development of Genneper Parken, the sports and recreational area, confirming Eindhoven as a Sports City. Several sports facilities have already been established in this southern part of the city, including the Pieter van den Hoogenband swimming stadium and the Centre for Top Sport and Education. With its sculptural appearance and lively facades, the Sports College is the new meeting place on the campus.
photo : Christian Richters
Van der Wal explains: “We wanted to create a social building. Everyone is familiar with the stereotypical image of the sports hall as a dull closed box, an association we wanted to avoid.” That’s why four of the five sports halls are up on the first floor, while the fifth hall is located at street level in the centre of the building. “This means that we could make the façade of the ground floor completely transparent, creating a very dynamic appearance for the park, and contributing to social safety in the evening.”
photos : Christian Richters
The strict demands which the Netherlands Olympic Committee imposes on sports accommodation were an extra complication for the design. For example, no daylight can enter the halls because of reflection. Nevertheless, the new building has a very light and spacious appearance. Van der Wal explains: “When you go in you look straight through the sports hall into the canteen, which offers views to the FC Eindhoven playing field. This is what we did throughout the building – with open areas, glass and viewing points. You can see sport everywhere.”
As the building is intended both for education and for top sports and amateur sports, the architect was also confronted with a logistical challenge. In the evenings and at weekends when sports clubs make use of the building, it had to be possible to screen off the educational function. This was challenging, but the many different spaces were successfully forged to create a harmonious whole. The sports college presents itself as a powerful entity with a single theme: sport is fun.
Fontys Sports College Eindhoven images / information from Mecanoo
16 Sep 2010
Fontys Sports College Eindhoven
Mecanoo’s Fontys Sports College in Eindhoven starts construction
Design: Mecanoo
pictures of Fontys Sports College from Mecanoo
Today, thursday, September 16th, marks the official start of construction of the Fontys Sports College Eindhoven designed by Mecanoo. The international sports institute in which the city of Eindhoven and Fontys have collaborated will be completed in August 2012 in Genneper Parks, one of the largest Dutch athletics terrains. Mecanoo designed Fontys Sports College with maximum synergy between education and sport functions. The 16,500 m2 sports complex will include five gymnasiums, a 15-meter high climbing tower, classrooms and parking garage. The Sports School brings together three studies which are currently located in Sittard and Tilburg.
Social sports facility
The intelligence of this building is that most of the sports accommodations are located on the first floor. This creates not a closed off sports box, but a completely transparent ground floor which is in relationship with the environment. It is a social sports facility design that contributes to the vibrancy of Genneper Parks.
The compactness of the building’s layout provides the advantage of room left for a stage to the building – in the form of a plinth – inviting athletic and social encounters in the outdoors. A brick roof sculpture, in which many of the sports amenities are located, is on the transparent ground floor. The literal highpoint of the building is the climbing wall which is situated at the corner of the building and acts like a beacon.
A huge glass window offers a distant view of the climbers. The sports complex’s logistics are sophisticated and provide the maximum of opportunities for cross disciplinary interaction between sports and education. It is possible to see into the sports halls from the corridors, study areas, the restaurant and the entrance halls. Simultaneously, sport and education are logistically separated. The teaching functions can be sealed off so that only the sports halls are accessible, for example at sporting events or sports association gatherings. Also in the evening, the building is lively, contributing to the security of Genneper Parks.
pictures of Fontys Sports College from Mecanoo
Mecanoo architecten was founded in Delft in 1984 and is led by architect/director Francine Houben. Mecanoo has designed numerous schools including Da Vinci College in Dordrecht (2007), Sterren College in Haarlem which will be completed at the end of 2010 and Amsterdam University College which begins construction in December 2010 and will be completed in 2012.
Fontys Sports College Eindhoven images / information from Mecanoo
Location: Eindhoven, Netherlands
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