Abbotsleigh Multi Purpose Sports Hall and Sports Field

The Awards Jury commented that the project was a beautifully realised building that meets the requirements of the brief successfully. Its flexibility is evident in the design of the building, and “it appears like it was always meant to be”.

Project Details

Architects
Allen Jack + Cottier

Award
Winner, Category 2: New Facility Construction – Individual Facility

Address
1666 Pacific Highway Wahroonga NSW 2076

Submitter
Dhani D’Arcy

Cost
Not disclosed

Photographer
Michael Heenan

Project Overview

In 2010, Allen Jack+Cottier (AJ+C) was commissioned by Abbotsleigh to prepare a master plan for the senior school. Abbotsleigh’s intent with this project was to introduce and promote activities and initiatives to enhance the health, fitness and safety of all users of their facilities. Within this framework, sports, cultural, education and boarding precincts were identified and defined. At the heart of these precincts are large green spaces and tracts of forest.

The new addition to the Abbotsleigh sports precinct, completed in 2015, comprises a curved  steel framed roof over a column free 56m x 38m hall. The facility houses three sports courts and allows for basketball, badminton, netball and  indoor tennis. Beneath the hall is a fitness room, teaching/dance studio spaces, and plant and storage spaces. The hall was also designed to allow flexibility to accommodate an assembly space for staff and students from the entire junior and senior schools (1500-1700  student capacity).

The project is located within a protected blue gum forested site. All spaces have been designed to reinforce the site particulars and physical connections with it. Players are almost brought directly in contact with the site on the hall levels. Light is brought into the building through translucent and louvered openings which are controlled by a building management system’s rain and wind sensors.

The building form acknowledges the thermodynamic building modelling used to enhance the environmentally sustainable principles of the design and programme. The southern end of the eastern and western façades have been curved to automatically separate water and leave debris. These curves create a seamless transition into an extended roof line beyond the actual building envelope itself. The result is a visually interesting profile which conveys a sense of energy and movement appropriate to the building’s use as a sporting facility. The sports and assembly hall and sports field is at once elegant and functional. The roof floats over the courts below, creating an uninterrupted channel for the natural ventilation which appears light weight and ephemeral, nothing superfluous, almost the essence of shelter.