EDDIE IZZARD

ARCHITECT'S NOTEBOOK
Sport, education and the 4th space
Mike Hall from FaulknerBrowns Architects shares his thoughts on the
important relationship between sport, education and community
The huge increase
in student
numbers over
the last 15 years,
coupled with
the introduction of tuition
fees, has driven significant
investment in our university facilities.
While much of this has been focused
around academic infrastructure, nonacademic
facilities, such as those for sport,
have also benefitted from investment.
Competition on the pitch is being
matched by competition off it to attract
the best students from home and overseas.
With this in mind, what are the key
differentiators for estates directors to
consider when planning new facilities?
The traditional benchmark for the
quality of a university’s sport offering is
the performance of the institution’s teams
in BUCS-officiated competitions (British
Universities and College Sport) and a high
ranking in the all-important league tables.
Ultimately, the key to achieving that is an
emphasis on high quality amenities focused
around the needs of teams, individual
athletes and their training regimes.
As general awareness of health and
wellbeing in student life increases, however,
it's becoming clear that recreational sport
is now of equal importance, especially with
the increasing availability of high quality
gym facilities in the private sector.
FORGING CONNECTIONS
This balance between performance and
recreation is coming under increasing
scrutiny, with a focus on how they can
work together to maximise enrolment.
At the same time, universities are using
sport to forge closer connections between
'town and gown', by working with the towns
and cities in which they are based.
The '4th space' could be a piece of public realm, a social
space or a wider concept where the power of sport is
harnessed through facility design to deliver social objectives
The Den Haag Sport Campus, Holland – an inclusive centre for sport, education and movement
Operationally this can be good business
practice. Sharing the capital and running
costs of swimming pools, for example, can
create a win-win situation for both parties.
Ultimately, however, it's the overall
student experience which is the key factor.
I recently delivered a paper at the IAKS
conference (International Association for
Sports and Leisure Facilities) in Cologne,
entitled 'the 4th space'. This explored the
added value that good design can bring to
a project when the tryptic of performance,
recreation and community are carefully
crafted together with a conceptual '4th
space', to deliver something special.
This included a recent example – Den
Haag Sport Campus in The Netherlands
– where an enlightened client saw the
synergies between education and sport,
and as a practice we were able to harness
that to great effect in our designs.
The brief for the Campus was to create a
centre for sport, education and movement.
A place where both the Hague University’s
Academy of Sport Studies and city
residents of all ages could engage in sport
and education together in the same place.
The idea of the '4th space' was realised
in a spiralling DNA chain concept for the
movement of the different user groups
through the educational and sporting
environments. This concept influenced the
final form of the building.
In other contexts the '4th space’ could
be a piece of public realm, a social space,
or a wider concept where the power of
sport is harnessed through facility design
to deliver educational or social objectives.
In all instances, architects have an
opportunity to work with educational
institutions to deliver sports facilities which
fully meet the needs of recreational users,
elite athletes and the wider community. ●
Mike Hall, sports partner, FaulknerBrowns
Architects. Tel: +44(0)191 2683007
e: m.hall@faulknerbrowns.co.uk
w: www.faulknerbrowns.co.uk
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sportsmanagement.co.uk issue 4 2015 © Cybertrek 2015