Community and Health Centre with Sports Hall, Erlangen, Germany

On a corner of a park not far to the city center, a new multifunctional sports center is being built to be used for school and team sports as well as major sporting events, including outdoor events (sports arena, exhibition grounds, marquee, etc.). The centerpiece is a four-field gym, which can be used as a handball arena and has a grandstand section. The gym is surrounded by adjoining rooms, e.g. changing, equipment, gymnastic, and fitness rooms as well as a multipurpose room. The four-span indoor and handball arena is completely column-free but is spanned by filigree trusses of 30m / 98ft length each.
A combination of active and passive measures reduces costs for construction and operating and ensures comfort. Essential components of the concept are triple glazing and roof overhangs for a good heat shield, skylights to optimize daylight permeability, an efficient and effective night ventilation and minimized mechanical basic ventilation as well as radiant panels for heating on the ceiling.
The climate concept developed for the hall includes mechanical basic ventilation with heat recovery. Night ventilation via flaps in the façade is also planned. A geothermal probe system is preconditioning the outdoor air passively. Radiant panels on the ceiling provide heating.
For daylight supply, the objectives were to avoid direct glare on the one hand, and on the other to achieve sufficient illumination of the gymnasium. The skylight design required intensive examination and was developed in an iterative process together with Behnisch Architekten.
In order to illuminate homogeneously with daylight, the number of skylights was set to eight per pitch, their positionings and the quality of the glazing were defined. The solution developed for shading - working name: E-Design - avoids glare from above by fixed wooden elements underneath the skylights. No matter whether the sun is to the east, west or south, the E-Design blocks direct sunlight and only allows diffuse radiation to enter.
In the north, the skylights and roof ring façade do not require glare protection due to the optimized geometry; in the south, however, an external, adjustable sun/glare protection is necessary. The south façade at the gymnasium perimeter receives an internal and adjustable glare protection.
The concept of air-conditioning the diverse rooms within the facility includes mechanical ventilation with heat recovery. In addition, window ventilation is possible here. In order to keep the temperatures balanced in summer, only 50% of all ceilings are suspended, thus activating the thermal mass. For this area underfloor heating is planned. The rooms in the north and the multipurpose room are shaded by the roof overhang only. The room for physical exercises additionally receives an external sun protection.
The entire facility is supplied by district heating. Active cooling is not planned. A photovoltaic system on the roof is proposed to cover the base energy load.