The dramatic staging reaches its consummation in a gorge-like incision which extends through almost the entire length of the two-storey volume. This constructional slit, which the architects refer to as a “canyon”, has a number of functions. It enmeshes the 5,200 m² development with the adjoining green urban spaces and ensures that it receives adequate natural light. It also creates a functional division between the public club realms and the sports hall on the north side used by the various local schools. These two tracts of roughly equal size are bound together by a joint foyer from which all sporting realms are centrally accessible. If required, however, the individual halls can also function independently, since each of them possesses its own changing rooms and separate entrances. A door with access control facilitates trouble-free school operations.
From the outside, too, the sports centre reveals a subtle permeability. What at first looks like shading on the metal sheeting turns out to be minute quadratic perforations that form cloud-like clusters on the skin of the building and lend it a delicate lightness. Immediately adjoining this, translucent expanded metal mesh elements permit a further incidence of light, and transparent glass surfaces near the floor allow direct views of the sporting events.
