Sports Center Überlingen

Text description provided by the architects. For the school campus in Überlingen on Lake Constance, a master plan was developed for the grounds of the city’s secondary school and high school. Its central component is a new sports center that consists of a three-court gymnasium, a gymnastics hall, and a ball sports hall.

The sports center has an elegant appearance thanks to the freestanding building’s facade of white expanded metal. The distinctive folded roof, which grows out of the cube as a jagged wooden construction, gives structure to the built form and establishes ties to the neighboring, smaller-scale residential buildings. Thus it fits into the surrounding roof landscape while simultaneously forging a distinctive identity. Inside, the dominant materials are exposed concrete and white expanded metal. Generously dimensioned glazed openings let ample daylight into the building and help create an amenable indoor environment.

In order to combine five gym spaces of different sizes in a clearly defined and freestanding structure, the facilities were stacked: The base of the new building houses the lobby, bleachers, and three-court gymnasium, while the upper floor accommodates the halls for ball sports and gymnastics along with ancillary spaces. The openly designed building is accessible from the north, east, and west. The glazed ground floor forms a transparent juncture to the public space with the adjoining schools and sports fields. The sports center is a contemporary facility tailored to the needs of athletes and is ideally suited for competitions and other sporting events, thus enabling it to enrich Überlingen’s sports landscape.