The new Sports Center in Berg near Neumarkt in the Upper Palatinate region presents itself as an attractive urban building block that promotes the municipality’s progress, providing ample space for school activities, sports clubs, leisure activities, as well as cultural and large-scale events.

Basic structure and urban integration
Surrounded by detached houses on the one hand and the Schwarzachtal School, the Chunradus Primary School and outdoor sports facilities on the other, the design responds to the challenging urban context with a clear, compact complex directed towards all sides. After a careful assessment of the existing structure, much of the existing swimming pool could be preserved. The changing rooms were dismantled and renovated, and a new sports hall was built. A glazed joint between the redeveloped indoor swimming pool and the new sports hall serves as circulation area and provides daylight. It connects the entrance area to the hard court as a “path through the building” and ensures direct accessibility from both sides.

Clarity, openness and interaction with the environment
The building structure, circulation, and glazed façade interact with the surroundings. Like a canvas that comes to life with changing weather and light conditions, the building envelope gives a vague idea of what is hidden inside. Clarity, openness, and interaction continue in the interior. The comprehensible arrangement of the different spaces, the natural circulation, sight lines and the choice of materials and colours allow users to find their way around quickly and easily.

Colour, Material, Texture
The clear architectural concept is reflected in the applied materials and in the color scheme. The sports centre looks unassuming from the outside. Lustrous silver-white, translucent profiled glass alternates with transparent glass surfaces. In the interior, robust surfaces made of exposed concrete characterize the areas of activity and the ancillary rooms. Bright, friendly colours like apple green, yellow, light blue, or pink mark the entrances to the changing rooms and sanitary facilities. The floors and walls of the wet areas in the swimming hall are tiled, with predominantly blue tones.

Energy concept
In winter, the airtight and thermally insulated building envelope of the sports centre ensures a pleasant indoor climate and minimises heat loss. The façade consists of triple solar control glazing with high daylight and energy transmittance as well as double-skin translucent industrial glass with internal thermal insulation and the resulting high energy-related technical parameters. In winter, when the sun is low, sunlight is used as a heat source. The skylights in the building joints, also made of triple solar control glazing, diffuse the sunlight into the room. This achieves uniform, glare-free lighting of the interior spaces and reduces the need for artificial lighting.