ALTZA SPORTS CENTER, DONOSTIA-SAN SEBASTIAN

Team

Architects: Ignacio Martínez Molina + Héctor Nevot LLoret

Project data

Location: Altza. Donostia-San Sebastián Surface area: 6,850 m2

Date

2014

Category
MV architects

It was a competition to rehabilitate and expand existing sports facilities by superimposing the new program over the existing one, all of this developed in a very dense and disjointed urban environment.

 

1 – The starting point was the non-conservation of any pre-existing element.

 

2 – In an environment of high building density and high-rise construction, the large dimensions of the site make it advisable to develop the building horizontally and not vertically as proposed in the competition. The program is developed in horizontal extension but differentiating volumes for each facility, which allows to “understand” the building easily.

 

3.1 – The neighborhood has a high building density on the west side of the plot, with a large number of high-rise buildings and hardly any collective green spaces. This leads us to propose the concentration of the new building on the eastern and southern part of the plot, the least dense, leaving a void on the west side, intended as a small park.

 

3.2 – The roof is conceived as a public space, as a square with green areas and paved areas, which can be crossed on foot, regardless of whether the sports center is open. Strolling along the deck you can watch the tests and games inside the facilities.

The green roof of the new sports building is intended as a continuation of this park on a higher level.

 

3.3 – We believe that the connection-association with cultural buildings demanded is one of the most important points of the project. For this purpose, a whole system of ramps, walkways and bridges is proposed to allow the continuity of pedestrian routes from the cultural buildings to the sports buildings and, through the roof of these, to continue in a promenade until reaching the traffic circle, in the eastern part of the plot, generating a pedestrian diagonal that crosses the plot.

 

4 – By placing the courts on the first floor, at the level of the park and treating the enclosures with great transparency, it would allow to locate a large number of doors which would enable the sports center (the great hall) for other uses that are not strictly sports such as concerts, festivals, etc. with total independence from the rest of the building.