newry Sports Centre

THAA submitted this design for a competition in Northern Ireland in the town of Newry. The brief was to create a sports facility to be used by the general public, schools and professional athletes.

The site is large, and the brief required the facility to provide a wide variety of sporting activities.

Several swimming pools were required for leisure as well as sporting purposes. Outdoor pitches suitable for football, rugby and other outdoor sports were also part of the brief, as well as a running track and tennis courts.

THAA’s concept was to create a pool complex with a long sloping sedum roof, the skin clad in local stone, gradually rising as though floating on a curtain wall of glass.

The glazed entrance atrium would link the pool building to the main indoor sports halls which are wrapped in Corten steel, providing a hard industrial aesthetic, juxtaposing the organic curves of the pool building.