Anglican Church Grammar: Sir John Pidgeon Sports Complex

The Sir John Pidgeon Sports Complex at Anglican Church Grammar School delivers a much needed multi-purpose sports hall for a School focused on a quality and diverse sporting program. Providing full size playing courts as well as a gymnasium, change rooms, ancillary and staff facilities, the complex provides the teaching/coaching staff a well-equipped ‘state of the art’ environment in which to educate.

Project Details

Architects
Brand + Slater Architects

Address
Oaklands Parade, EAST BRISBANE Q 4169

Submitter
John Slater, Brand + Slater Architects

Cost
$ 9,900,000

Photographer
Mindi Cooke

Project Overview

The Sports Centre is a large building on two levels. Brick cladding references existing school buildings and provides a level of detail that minimises the scale of the sports hall. Bands of insulated cladding panels on the exterior together with louvers and strips of glazing work together to reduce the impact of the building facades. The ground floor has a large, multi-purpose sports hall together with weight training, aerobic and a gym together with changing rooms and showers. The sports hall, with the use of curtains and drop down back boards can be divided in to basketball, volley ball and footsul courts. This allows different activities to be performed at the same time. Acoustic veneered ply panels on the walls helps control reverberant sound. The upper level comprise staff offices, two large classrooms, generous entry and circulation spaces and a large viewing area looking down onto the sports area below. The main entry is on this level with a wide bridge linking to the main external circulation paths. The open eastern aspect together with high level windows to the north, south and east, west and large panels of glazing to the east provide natural light. This combined with opening louvers and roof mounted fans means the sport hall during daytime needs very little artificial light and only natural ventilation. Internal temperature is controlled by lovers and roof overhangs to provide shade on the outside, limited window openings to the north, insulated wall and roof cladding and the ability to open close louvered windows to take advantage of prevailing breezes. The challenge was how to minimise the scale of the sports hall. The insulated panels used as external cladding are expressed as bands on the inside and this with ply veneer paneling and timber strip flooring provides a human level of detail and scale which mitigates the volume of the space.