SIETE INFANTES DE LARA SPORTS CENTRE

Sports center (multipurpose court, indoor pool and gym)

Location: Logroño, Spain

Client: Logroño City Council 

State: Competition: Second Prize

Year: 2006

The burying of the train tracks and the gradual disappearance of the industrial fabric near the site that is the object of this tender, which will take place over time to allow the consolidation of this urban environment as a residential area, make it essential to undertake a project with guarantees of urban integration, taking into account not only the current urban context, but also a possible new urban scenario in the medium or long term.

For this reason, the proposal arises from the guidelines that suggest, on the one hand, the programmatic needs of the proposed building as well as the desire to present a building that not only creates a city but also thinks about it, both in today's city and in the morning.

These premises are what lead us to the chosen volumetric approach, the result of the stacking of the different programmatic packages, and whose justifications are the following:

- Increase the green area of the city by freeing the maximum possible surface area of the site (57%) as open free space.

-  Create a piece of the same scale as the residential pieces adjacent to the site, anticipating the future homogenization of the urban fabric with the appearance of more residential fabric.

-  Create a homogeneous elevation and in continuity with the rest of the blocks towards the San Miguel park.

-  Allow, through the treatment of the façade that differs from the rest of the buildings in the urban context, to create a reference element that allows qualifying this urban area.

-  Allow greater integration with the residential area around Duques de Nájera street, on the other side of the railroad tracks, either visually under current conditions, or physically in the near future through integration in a pedestrian area greater and even with the creation of a road that in continuity with Rodejón street connects with Duques de Nájera street.

-  Allow all the large spaces of the project (gym, swimming pools, sports halls) to visually turn towards the San Miguel park as it is a highly qualified natural environment.

-  Reduce costs of execution, maintenance, and internal network topologies due to the compactness of the proposed building.

-  Reduce costs by eliminating the need to integrate an underground car park by creating a single outdoor parking area integrated into a wooded area in continuity with the San Miguel park.

- Increase the technical improvements of the building by reducing the previous costs, and increase the energy efficiency of the building with these improvements.