Itinerary: Sports architecture | Architecture Now

We prefer to consider ourselves as a sporting nation. Glories are fleeting however, as I write, Kiwis are basking within the glow of the retention of the America’s Cup, All Blacks’ wins over Australia and England, a check cricket sequence sweep in India, and our netball group claiming the Constellation Cup. Hoorah! Unsurprisingly, we worth our sports activities structure — it’s telling that the primary main public facility changed after the Christchurch earthquakes was the rugby stadium.

However surveys present participation in organised sport is declining and, as with lots of our conventional group establishments, many sports activities golf equipment are struggling to keep up their viability. In distinction to this sluggish decline, spectatorship is prospering. The professionalisation of rugby within the Nineteen Nineties created calls for for commercialisation and branding, and sports activities grounds turned key facets of picture and income technology. Many sorts of sporting venues transitioned from primarily supporting particular person enchancment and group interplay to the availability of business experiences and, ultimately, as ticket costs accelerated upwards, to spectatorship as a luxurious good — a world of VIP packages, non-public lounges, unique experiences and different costly, architecture-enabled add-ons. Servicing these new calls for, notably the place they intersected with these of leisure occasions, has been a key driving pressure behind the emergence of a brand new technology of sports activities venues during the last 20 years.

Venues, like groups, usually have symbolic significance to their native communities. Mercifully, we’ve to date averted the American state of affairs the place skilled, privately owned sports activities groups leverage this emotional connection and threats of leaving to pressure municipalities into offering ostentatious services. We have now, nevertheless, seen a parade of extravagant schemes for a brand new nationwide stadium on or close to the Auckland waterfront. It’s grow to be a sort of casual, slow-motion design competitors. This could increase pink flags, particularly given how poorly we frequently run even formal design competitions; we are likely to make use of them just for giant, high-stakes tasks, with out our having collected experience — administration, judging, minimising political shenanigans — by lower-stakes competitions.

The larger tasks on this itinerary are, unsurprisingly, the merchandise of our largest companies. In contrast to different sorts of giant buildings, sports activities tasks in smaller centres, maybe as a result of the organisations that fee them are so embedded of their communities, are sometimes picked up by native companies.

The place there’s cash to be made, or political reputations are at stake, sources are inevitably made accessible, and massive tasks get accomplished. The issues such tasks tackle are usually these of technical decision and concrete kind. Nonetheless, the smaller tasks by native companies have been a few of our most progressive and provoking of current years. Naenae Bowling Membership is an instance of how social, monetary and architectural ingenuity have intersected. A bowling membership bought its priceless web site, mixed with one other membership in a run-down a part of city, and boldly developed a world-class facility that has drawn in folks and occasions to the extent that it has boosted not simply membership membership however surrounding companies — a grassroots Guggenheim Impact.

We discover ourselves in a second when sources are being withdrawn from community-level interventions in favour of tasks ‘of nationwide significance’. Within the absence of a sprinkling of Ministerial fairy mud, the hurdles for grassroots tasks are rising, but when architects can contribute the time mandatory to assist organisations surmount obstacles, we will be optimistic about each the well being of our communities and the sporting glories of the future.

THE ITINERARY

01. 1977 – Recreation Centre

College of Auckland, 17 Symonds Avenue, Auckland JASMaD

Among the many most celebrated buildings of its period, it received a number of awards, together with the NZIA Nationwide Award and Gold Medal in 1979 and an Enduring Structure Award in 2003. In order to not dominate the then adjoining scholar union and homes, the massive health club was partially buried to scale back its obvious quantity, many services have been situated beneath floor, and assist areas have been housed in casual lean-to constructions round two sides. The constructing was demolished in 2021; the College additionally just lately razed JASMaD’s Silver Medal-winning, DoCoMoMo-listed Worldwide Home (1971). See NZ Architect no. 1, 1979, and no. 3, 1979.

02. 1989 – Chase Stadium

203 Kohimarama Highway, Kohimarama, Auckland Dodd Paterson Architects

Now named Barfoot & Thompson Stadium, this hi-tech confection was constructed on the grounds of Selwyn Faculty. Initially supposed as a comparatively modest faculty gymnasium, it was expanded to grow to be the gymnastics venue for the 1990 Commonwealth Video games. See Structure NZ Mar/Apr 1988. The 1990 video games broke new floor, architecturally. Expectations for sporting occasions had been reset by the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics — an structure of commodity and delight over firmness. The athletes’ village and venue dressing, by designers together with Bossley Cheshire Architects and KRTA, made in depth use of impermanent supplies, resembling scaffolding, painted ply and cardboard tubes.

03. 2000 – Wellington Regional Stadium

147 Waterloo Quay, Wellington Warren and Mahoney

Formally now named Sky Stadium however affectionately referred to as ‘The Cake Tin’, this stadium changed the ageing and poorly situated Athletic Park. Designed by Warren and Mahoney with Bligh Lobb Sports activities Structure, it was the nation’s first bowl stadium and might host cricket, rugby, soccer and leisure occasions. Constructed on reclaimed railway land, it’s linked on to each transport networks and the central metropolis. Its distinctive, glossy steel pores and skin and placement on key approaches to town make it the sports activities constructing which has made the strongest contribution to city kind. See Structure NZ Jan/Feb 2000.

04. 2007 – Spark Area

Mahuhu Crescent, Auckland Crawford Architects

The biggest of the nation’s indoor arenas, this 12,000-seat multifunctional venue hosts sports activities resembling basketball and netball in addition to occasions from rock live shows to theatrical occasions to NZIA conferences. Usefully situated close to town centre and transport hyperlinks, the venture was one in every of New Zealand’s first giant public-private partnerships; the idea design by American agency Crawford Architects was dropped at completion by Peddlethorp Architects. Development difficulties meant contractor Mainzeal took heavy losses on the venture; these possible contributed to its collapse just a few years later. The constructing is now owned by controversial leisure behemoth Dwell Nation Leisure.

05. 2008 – The Hills Clubhouse

164 McDonnell Highway, Arrowtown Patterson Associates

The venture gives clubhouse services at The Hills Golf Membership, a swanky non-public golf membership developed by jewelry entrepreneur Sir Michael Hill. Firmly embedded into each the bottom and the luxurious finish of the sports activities structure spectrum, the constructing sits in a course peppered with large-scale sculpture. The constructing was the recipient of a string of awards, together with an NZIA Supreme Award in 2008. Bookings required. See Structure NZ Jan/Feb 2008. Patterson followers with much less room on their calendars or bank cards may take a look at the A J Hackett Kawarau Bungy Centre (2003) close by, at 1693 Gibbston Freeway, Gibbston.

06. 2009 – St Kentigern Faculty Jubilee Sports activities Centre

82 Shore Highway, Remuera, Auckland Architectus

This can be a main faculty sports activities facility, although one in every of sophistication actually accessible solely in non-public faculties, notably within the present funding atmosphere. The massive quantity of the health club was buried in a slope between two sports activities fields, with secondary facilities cleverly organized above, beneath and beside. The result’s a fragile pavilion edging the higher subject, the health club searching over the decrease subject, and a vertiginous circulation route linking the lot. Recipient of an NZIA Nationwide Award in 2011. See Structure NZ Jul/Aug 2010. In 2022, Architectus accomplished two additional award-winning buildings on the college web site.

07. 2011 – Forsyth Barr Stadium

130 Anzac Avenue, Dunedin Jasmax and Populous

One in every of plenty of venues in-built time for the 2011 Rugby World Cup, this was the world’s first absolutely enclosed pure turf stadium and remains to be the nation’s solely lined stadium. It changed the famed Carisbrook, which had comparable capability and a bigger floor. Forsyth Barr’s floor is simply too small to host cricket, however relocatable seating gives flexibility for a variety of occasions. The worth of this change has been demonstrated, notably after Christchurch’s stadium was misplaced within the ’quakes, with the venue internet hosting live shows starting from Black Sabbath to 3 back-to-back exhibits by Ed Sheeran. See Structure NZ Oct/Nov 2011.

08. 2011 – Knoll Ridge Café

High of Bruce Highway, Mount Ruapehu Harris Butt Structure

Situated on Whakapapa Ski Area in Tongariro Nationwide Park, this venture changed a earlier café, destroyed by fireplace in 2009. It sits in a altering and sometimes excessive context — craggy volcanic rock and climbers in summer season, snow and crowds of skiers in winter, freezing temperatures and wind speeds of as much as 200kph year-round. As an alternative of the low-slung, defensive posture often adopted within the face of powerful situations and heavy use, the venture is assertive — a kind cantilevered into the view, and an inside animated by a laminated timber construction. Recipient of an NZIA Nationwide Award in 2012. See Structure NZ Jan/Feb 2012.

09. 2014 – Avantidrome

15 Hanlin Highway, Cambridge Chibnall Buckell Marovic Staff

Now referred to as the Grassroots Belief Velodrome, that is the headquarters for the nationwide high-performance observe biking programme, in addition to a set of different group services. Design consideration targeted on the geometrically advanced job of forming the timber-surfaces observe whereas making certain sight strains for spectators and entry for rivals. An adjoining block homes a health club, workplace and assist areas, a few of which double as VIP lounges throughout competitors. Plans are afoot so as to add a Sports activities Corridor of Fame constructing within the close to future. See Progressive Constructing Oct 2013. Pop in to see Roy Lippincott’s Thirties buildings at St. Peter’s Faculty subsequent door.

10. 2015 – Bay Oval Belief Carrus Pavilion

Kawaka Avenue, Mount Maunganui Jasmax

This floor hosts worldwide video games however is enclosed by solely a steady sweep of embankment and a few packing containers for broadcasters. Jasmax’s pavilion is a crisp arc that merely follows the curve of the sphere. The embankment out entrance has been stepped to permit extra intensive occupation. Barnaby Bennett wrote that the constructing succeeded “by cautious planning, versatile area and a dedication to creating positive [it] carried out nicely, not simply throughout the uncommon internationals but additionally for the opposite 99 per cent of [its] utilization”. Recipient of an NZIA Native Award in 2015. See Structure NZ Mar/Apr 2015. The pavilion is at present being doubled in measurement.

11. 2017 – Trafalgar Centre

Paru Paru Highway, Nelson Irving Smith Architects 

As is typical of many municipal sports activities services, the Trafalgar Centre has undergone a sequence of updates and extensions to accommodate new makes use of and meet growing expectations. First constructed in 1973 by Alex Bowman, it was prolonged by Arthouse Architects in 2009, and an extra extension and earthquake strengthening was accomplished in 2017 by Irving Smith. The current extension is an unpretentious however helpful lobby and gathering area. The intelligent association and beneficiant glazing of the newest addition permits customers to benefit from the adjoining park. The venture received an NZIA Nationwide Award in 2018. Refer Structure NZ Could/June 2018.

12. 2017 – Naenae Bowling Membership

25 Vogel Avenue, Naenae, Decrease Hutt Tennent Brown Architects

As with different sorts of group establishments, many sports activities golf equipment are struggling. This venture took place when two native bowling golf equipment merged, promoting the dear land holdings of 1 and utilizing the proceeds to construct top-notch services on the positioning of the opposite. Situated with a set of different community-level sports activities and leisure services however providing services supposed to entice international-level occasions, the venture has generated the hoped-for progress; membership quickly expanded such that that is now the biggest bowling membership within the nation. The venture acquired an NZIA Nationwide Award in 2020. See Structure NZ July/Aug 2018

13. 2023 – Kiwa Swimming pools

Centennial Marine Drive, GisborneArchitecture HDT

Changing a Nineteen Seventies pool advanced, this venture is typical of the brand new breed of group sports activities services. Low-scaled and sited amongst different municipal leisure facilities, it seeks to maximise year-round amenity and accessibility for all customers and kind a part of a hub for group exercise. It consists of an Olympic-sized indoor pool, hydrotherapy pool, learn-to-swim swimming pools, a children’ splash pool and occasion rent areas. The construction and providers are uncovered, and inside adornments by native arts maestro Sir Derek Lardelli present a way of cultural resonance and native connection. The venture acquired an NZIA Native Award in 2024.

14. 2024 – Recreation and Wellness Centre

College of Auckland, 17 Symonds Avenue, AucklandWarren and Mahoney

Evaluating the brand new Centre to the 1977 model aptly illustrates the shifting understandings of sport and wellness throughout 40-odd years, in addition to the elevation of ‘the coed expertise’ in college life. It’s going to service a college inhabitants that has greater than quadrupled for the reason that Nineteen Seventies and which calls for a higher vary of wants and pursuits be offered for. Instead of JASMaD’s intentionally recessive and modest form-making, the brand new constructing is actually flashy — stainless-steel fins and civic-scaled foyers give entry to a 10-storey stack of services, together with a pool, dive nicely, bouldering wall and ‘chill’ areas.

OTHER ADDRESSES

1995 –TSB Area 4 Queens Wharf, Wellington Craig Craig Moller

Previously referred to as the Queens Wharf Occasions Centre.

1997 – North Harbour Stadium Stadium Drive, Albany, Auckland GHD Design

2002 – FMG Stadium Waikato 128 Seddon Highway, Hamilton Peddle Thorp Architects

2004 – The Trusts Area 65–67 Central Park Drive, Henderson, Auckland Warren and Mahoney

2007 – Power Occasions Centre Queens Drive, Rotorua Boon Goldsmith Bhaskar

2010 – Eden Park South Stand Reimers Avenue, Mount Eden, Auckland Jasmax and Populous

The nation’s highest-capacity venue.

2011 – Sir Don Rowlands Centre 601 Maungatautari Highway, Karāpiro Chibnall Buckell Marovic and  Staff Architects

The bottom for rowing on Lake Karāpiro.

2011 – Ākau Tangi Sports activities Centre 72 Kemp Avenue, Kilbirnie, Wellington Tennent Brown Architects

Initially referred to as ASB Sports activities Centre.

2014 – St Cuthbert’s Faculty Centennial Centre for Wellbeing 122 Market Highway, Epsom, Auckland Architectus

2014 – Hagley Oval Pavilion Riccarton Avenue, Christchurch Athfield Architects

2015 – Remarkables Ski Area Base Constructing Remarkables Ski Area Entry Highway, Queenstown Wyatt & Gray Architects

SOURCES

These tasks have been extensively printed in up to date journals. Paul Walker’s critique of Chase Stadium in Structure NZ (Mar/Apr 1988) paints an attention-grabbing image of sports activities structure within the Nineteen Eighties. The Barnaby Bennett article (Structure NZ Mar/Apr 2015) on Bay Oval and Hagley Park cricket pavilions quoted above touches on wider points and rewards searching for out. Peddle Thorp’s Richard Goldie wrote of the worldwide state of play for sports-grounds in ‘Stadia goals’ in Structure NZ (Nov/Dec 2019). Most of the companies cited have printed monographs — see Stephen Stratford’s Jasmax (Auckland: NZ Architectural Publications Belief, 2007) and New Territory: Warren and Mahoney (Auckland: Balasoglou Books, 2005), Haig Beck and Jack Cooper’s Architectus: Between Order and Alternative (Berkeley, CA: Oro Editions, 2009), Habits Kind Habitats (Wellington: Tennent Brown Architects, 2015), and Aaron Betsky’s Unfinished & Far Far Away: The Structure of Irving Smith Architects (Barcelona: Altrim, 2023). A few of our venues have tales written up: see John McCrystal and Lindsay Knight, Eden Park: A Historical past (Wellington: Phantom Home Books, 2011) and Tim Donoghue, Athletic Park: A Misplaced Soccer Floor (Wellington: Tim Donoghue Publications, 1999).

The Itinerary sequence is supported by Dulux Colors of New Zealand. Dulux Color Specialist Davina Harper has chosen a Colors of New Zealand palette primarily based on this itinerary. See the complete vary and order color samples right here.