Rooftop Sports

Here are some more examples of rooftop pitches.

This research page shows some more interesting examples of rooftop facilities. The page show recent youth training facilities developed in America by Manchester City F.C. More interesting is the Montalban Theater in California. With the help of Nike they were able to expand and build a rooftop court. One thing I love is that the rooftop court is not just used for sports but is also used for event giving the space a multi-functional purpose.

http://www.themontalban.com/

Rooftop Sports

Since coming across some examples of sports pitches and courts on top of rooftops I have come across many more examples. A lot of the rooftop pitches I have found have been in a number of countries across the world but I am yet to find an example of this being used in the U.K

 














These are pictures of two 11 a-side on the rooftop of a building in Miami. One visual impact that all these rooftop pitches have is that from a distance it might just appear to be a green roof. I think this has a big visual impact in location where there is little or no green space, in areas where it is usually just standard high rise buildings.

Site Views

These are some of the potential views that could be seen from the leisure centre and the rooftop pitch. 

Fala Park Leisure Centre

Fala Park is the leisure centre that I came across which had tennis courts on its roof.

The centre was designed by PL Architekci and is located in Poland. The tennis courts were located on the roof due to the lack of room. Not only was it a great space saver but it was also seen as an opportunity to take advantages of the panoramic views the vantage point from the roof would give.

With the location of my site being in the city centre of Nottingham providing some sort of rooftop facility would be an ideal as space is very limited. I will propose to have an 3G football pitch on the top of my leisure centre. This will provide a unique setting for playing football and I feel create a real buzz and excitement for the user.

http://www.archdaily.com/280739/fala-park-pl-architekci/

Rooftop Sports

When looking at some precedents for leisure centres I came across a leisure centre in Poland where due to lack of space the constructed there tennis courts on top of the roof. I decided to have a look at some examples of where sports facilities have been put on roof.

The reason I want to look at this is because I am potentially proposing to provide some roof top artificial pitches.

Car Parks

I also noticed that all of the car park are very old and not very pleasing to the eye. The new development could offer the opportunity for refurbishment or new cladding on the car park to improve its look.

Car Parks?

Ideas for my major study project are starting to come along but I am yet to fully decide on a final site location. With the idea of building in the city centre of Nottingham comes the issue of space. As with most city centres space is very limited and I am proposing the development of a leisure centre which usually requires a large area. 

Which this issue I started to think about how I could potentially build vertically, knowing it has been done with gyms in city centres before where facilities have been provided over a number of levels. Today I walked past the Arnedale car park, this got me thinking maybe I don't need a open piece of land maybe there is a potential to construct on top of a building or car park? 

I decided to go round Nottingham city centre and look at all of the car parks. As you can imagine all of these car parks are located in prime locations in the centre of the city.

Broadmarsh Car Park

Broadmarsh car park is located above the Broadmarsh bus station. This is the biggest of all the car parks I looked at.

 

Lace Market Car Park

This car park in located on Fletcher Gate Road and again is in a great central location in the city. From first thoughts I feel that this car park might be slightly to narrow to accommodate a reasonable sized multi-court sport hall.

Arndale Car Park

The Arndale car park is located near the boardmarsh car park. This is a more suitable size from my initial thoughts. Again it does appear to be very narrow and could be a challenge.

One feature that makes this car park stand out from the rest is the fact that there is areas around the car park that could be used for vertical circulation and other uses. Most of the other car parks that I looked at were fully surrounded by other buildings and road leaving little room to construct outside of the car parks total floor area.

Crown Plaza Car Park

Mount Street Car Park

Along with the Arndale car park the Mount Street car park seems to be a suitable size for a good sized sporting facility. The Mount Street car park is more of a square shape so I am leaning more towards choosing this car park but I am still unsure.