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SPORTS REDEVELOPMENT
SPORTS REDEVELOPMENT
Introduction
Founded in 1879, making us one of the longest established architectural practices in the country, GSSArchitecture have developed into a national practice, with offices in Kettering, Harrogate, Gloucester, Milton Keynes and Newcastle.
We are Chartered Architects, Lead Consultants, Quantity Surveyors and Principal Designers, and can also provide an all-encompassing design team solution for our clients. We are a dynamic, forward thinking practice that delivers innovative solutions from initial concepts and masterplanning through to delivery and completion.
Over the years GSSArchitecture has built up a significant amount of knowledge and experience of sports specific projects.We have designed a wide range of sports facilities, which include Football Stadiums, Specialist Sports Training Centres, Gyms, Swimming Pools, and Injury Rehabilitation Centres, many of which have been linked with Higher and Further Education institutions.
Stamford Endowed Schools: Sports Centre
Stamford School was originally founded in 1532 in Stamford, Lincolnshire. Today, it is part of the Stamford Endowed Schools, a leading independent group of three schools for boys and girls aged 2-18.
GSSArchitecture were commissioned by the School to produce a site-wide masterplan, to locate library/research, sports and performing arts facilities in separate locations around the School campus. This entailed designing a new, purpose-built sports centre, incorporating a 25m indoor pool, changing rooms for the pool and outdoor sports, a fitness suite and a gymnasium, along with sheltered spectator terraces.
The site was particularly challenging in terms of access by large vehicles. As part of the planning application, GSS had to demonstrate in detail how construction traffic would be managed as it accessed the site through the nearby busy narrow streets.
Durham University: Sports Centre
Durham University is a world ranked institution with a reputation for the pursuit of excellence in sport. To support their strategic plans for ongoing development, GSSArchitecture were commissioned as Lead Consultant and Architects to design this international sports facility, which includes an 8-court sports hall specifically designed to accommodate the needs of the University.
It was an important factor for the University that the building should also cater for a wide range of potential users both within the University and from the local community. As such, the facility also features a comprehensive fitness suite with an Olympic conditioning suite.
The associated changing facilities were also enhanced to ensure that facilities were available for all spectrums of the local community. By taking this approach, the University achieved a first-class facility.
Moulton College: Sports Injury & Rehabilitation Centre
Moulton College is a Centre of Excellence for education and training for the natural, built and recreational environment. It is a Beacon College and is Ofsted designated ‘outstanding’, with a national reputation for innovation and excellence in teaching and learning.
In recent years GSSArchitecture have worked with the College to deliver a £45m building programme across all of the very diverse range of facilities and courses on offer. Most recently the practice has developed specialist sports facilities to support the many sports-based courses and the various rugby, football, golf, hockey and basketball academies based on the site and linked with a range of professional clubs and their associations.
The New Sports Injury and Rehabilitation Centre is a state-of-the-art facility and the only one of its kind in the UK, and only the second in Europe. The brief was to develop an innovative mode of operation in both learning and rehabilitation by combining teaching and clinical facilities. This new-build centre now includes a 25 metre swimming pool with moveable floor, whole body cryotherapy chamber, hyperbaric chamber, thermal therapy suites, water therapy and hydrotherapy pools, consulting rooms and a biomechanics analysis laboratory.
The significant building presented a range of planning challenges, which were successfully resolved, associated with delivering a large complex facility on an open ‘green field’ site in a rural location. The project was delivered on programme and within budget.
Widely regarded as Leicestershire’s flagship comprehensive, The Beauchamp College is a co-educational Leading Edge Upper School. It has a diverse mix of student culture with over 2000 students between the ages of 14 and 19, with over 1000 students in the sixth form, making it the largest in the country. The school enjoys an excellent reputation throughout the UK and abroad.
The Sports centre, which has become and important facility for the whole community, incorporates a full sized sports hall with eight badminton courts and two basketball courts, one of which is to international standard. As well as the usual changing facilities there is a special area for seminars. Funding for the project has included a contribution from Sport England.
A suite of external and internal changing facilities, together with the main areas, has been designed to Football Foundation, Sport England and Basketball England specifications.
Beauchamp College: Sports Centre
The Duston Sports Centre in Northampton is a sport and leisure complex which contains a state-of-the-art gym, dance studio, sports hall, bar and function rooms and sports pitches. As well as fitness and dance facilities, the centre accommodates sports such as football, archery, martial arts and outdoor bowls.
The developement was built on the former Timken Sports Centre, which was largely destroyed in a fire, leaving just the steel framework and concrete floor slab of the previous sports hall undamaged. This was then incorporated into the new complex which substantially saved on cost as a result of the reduction in demolition.
The attractive two-storey building is also used for various local clubs and groups and has become a key asset to the local community.
Duston Public Sports Centre
TL: Millfield Cricket CentreTC: Millfield Cricket CentreTR: Pitsford School Sports CentreML: Pitsford School Sports CentreMC: Pitsford School Sports CentreMR: Cricket PavilionBC: King’s Ely Sports CentreBR: King’s Ely Sports Centre
Millfield School is a co-educational independent school located in Somerset. Since its establishment in 1935 it has grown into a centre of excellence for academic study, with strong sports facilities.
Following on from a successful design competition, GSSArchitecture were chosen to design a new indoor cricket and golf centre for Millfield. The facilities have been designed to be embedded into the steep slope of the site, providing grass viewing terraces, and the sheltered earth provides a precisely controllable environment, utilising state of the art lighting, materials and support facilities.
Continuing GSSArchitecture’s relationship with King’s Ely and the vital refurbishment of The Old Bishop’s Palace in late 2013 to provide new teaching facilities, offices and breakout spaces, GSS were invited to compete for the design and development of a new sports centre which will include a 25m 6 lane pool and a multi-use sports hall. GSS’s proposal was in keeping with the brief of the project, giving consideration to Health and Safety, school routine and the wider environment, whilst bringing imagination and versatility to the space. These factors secured our proposal as the winner of the competition.
GSSArchitecture were asked by Oundle School to produce a proposal for a new cricket pavilion for the school and community. GSS proposed a scheme that drew on experience from other cricketing establishments we have worked with, such as Millfield School and Northants County Cricket, providing high tech equipment and modern changing and ancillary facilities that could be used by school and community players.
In 2012 GSSArchitecture won a competition for the design of a new sports centre for Pitsford School, providing better facilities for a school that prides itself on its sporting accomplishments. Whilst the original scheme never went to site, the relationship that was forged through winning the competition allowed GSSArchitecture to work with Pitsford on a second scheme for a sports centre that would require a shorter fundraising period, allowing the facilities to be provided to the pupils much sooner.
Millfield School: Cricket Centre King’s Ely School Sports Centre
Oundle School Cricket Pavilion
Pitsford School Sports Centre
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SPORTS REDEVELOPMENT
