Heuried Sports Centre in Zurich
Alterations and extension works at the Heuried Sports Centre in Zurich took two years. It opened again in autumn 2017 with a new ice sports hall. The centre’s open-air swimming pools will be available in time for the 2018 season. In the light of structural and operational problems, the city council issued an architectural competition for the refurbishment and upgrading of the original open-air facility with its swimming pool and two outdoor ice-skating rinks built in 1964 to a design by Fritz Schwarz and Hans Litz. The winning entry by locally based architects EM2N involved refurbishing the sports centre and adding an all-year-round ice sports hall. The design skilfully combined the different uses in one building beneath a striking, three-part roof landscape with photovoltaic panels. The impressive canopy with its large skylights cantilevers 16 metres to shelter the entrance zone below, which connects to and links the various levels. Ramps, stairs and footbridges enrich the experience for visitors to the complex in an interplay with planted and landscaped areas, continuing the tradition of modern open-air swimming pools in Zurich. The roof and external facade are constructed in timber. A continuous ribbon of windows on the upper floor provides a visual separation between the body of the building and the roof, which forms a modulated landscape to suit the flow of forces in the beams. White and grey timber laths envelop the predominantly solid facade at ground-floor level. Their delicate proportions lend a certain lightness to the building.
