Light Path

Summer Night City

Light Path in Auckland

Monk Mackenzie Architects, LandLAB, GHD

About

The „Light Path“ (also named Nelson Street Cycleway or „Te Ara I Whiti“) is a cycleway (and in some sections, a shared pathway for walking and cycling) in Auck­land, New Zealand. The most famous part of the path is Māori Te Ara I Whiti section, trans­lated as, and commonly known as Light­path or also as the Pink Path.

Light Path trans­forms six hundred meters of redun­dant highway infra­struc­ture into a dynamic cycleway comple­ting a vital link in Auckland’s inner­city cycle network. Stage 1 of the Light Path was opened in December 2015, stage 2 opened two years later.

Striking

The Light Path uses a strict economy of means to trans­form the city dwel­lers’ expe­ri­ence of this piece of trans­port infra­struc­ture. The striking coloured pave­ment and inter­ac­tive lighting bring a distinc­tive and chan­ging character to the reuse of this piece of motorway. This changes the expe­ri­ence of the path for the user and also changes their expe­ri­ence of the city beyond.

The design is bold and confi­dent with all elements well inte­grated into the singular and simple form of the path. It is the power of this design stra­tegy that elevates a utili­ta­rian pathway to a much more complex space of inha­bi­ta­tion, and creates a distinc­tive urban land­mark for the city.

The city and the individual

Archi­tec­tu­rally the project had to work simul­ta­neously at two scales: the macro and the micro — the city and the indi­vi­dual. The project was also prima­rily conceived equally as a piece of urban art as it was urban design.

To create an impact at this wider city scale a simple yet bold stra­tegy was employed. The former asphalt highway was given a highly vivid and provo­ca­tive pink resin and aggre­gate surfa­cing. This trans­formed the space from a disused highway into a highly contem­po­rary urban space used by cyclists and pede­strians.

Urban connectivity

A dusk and evening dimen­sion was created by placing over 300 LED custom light boxes along the eastern edge of the cycleway to create a light spine. These were fully programmable and contained sensors to create a digital infra­struc­ture to allow an artist to create an infi­nite array of expe­ri­ences.

Alumi­nium plates, engraved with original Maori artist Katz Maihi artworks were subtly inte­grated into the western edge of the cycleway barrier. In addi­tion to this, the pink surfa­cing was concluded at its nort­hern end in another 27 metre long original artwork that morphed the surfa­cing back to asphalt.

Soundtrack

The project is a bold state­ment in Auckland’s urban realm, illus­t­ra­ting move­ment, speed and aspi­ra­tion. It takes on the often over­used defi­ni­tion of urban connec­ti­vity and profoundly rede­fines it with a persua­sive use of colour, mate­ria­lity and tech­no­logy. In the process, it contri­butes to a dispersal of ones percep­tion of what it is to move about a city with an into­xi­ca­ting cycling, pede­strian and trans­por­ta­tion event.

 

„Can’t resist the strange attrac­tion
From that giant dynamo
Lots to take and lots to give
Time to breathe and time to live“

ABBA, Summer Night City

We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Designer

Monk Mackenzie
Level 3, 23 O’Connell Street
PO Box 3457
Short­land Street
NZL — Auck­land 1010

Opening

2015 & 2017

Client

New Zealand Trans­port Agency
Ronnie Salunga

Auck­land Council
Gyles Bendall

Construction management

GHD
Gansen Govender, Stephen Cummins

GHD Centre Level 3
27 Napier Street
Free­mans Bay
NZL — Auck­land 1010

Design

LandLAB
Level 2, 17 Sale Street
Free­mans Bay,
NRZ — Auck­land 1010

Photographs

MMA
Russ Flatt

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
More Sports Media

Videos

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Tree house

Wild World

Tree house in Cascais

Madeiguincho

Contrast

Remem­be­ring his child­hood, among nature, trees, and friends, this tree house was desi­gned for a grand­fa­ther who wanted to offer a new idea to his grand­children.

A simple, fami­liar and easy-to-use space that keeps contrast with tech­no­logy trends that kids are getting used to. 

Inclusion

This shelter was desi­gned to include three trees in the project. A Cedar that crosses the project and two Tipuan that can delimit the plat­form.

The support plat­form is supported by the three tree trunks and receives the tree house built in CLT panels and a cedar roof. 

Brave old world

The entire exte­rior of the tree house was burned to better preserve the wood and subse­quently bathed in linseed oil, allo­wing to gain a cool and raw texture.

This contrasts with a cleaner, warmer inte­rior, with a natural wood texture, lightly treated with a matte oil. The natural light openings prevail in East-West orien­ta­tion to get a better view of the sunrise and sunset.

This tree house is a little master­piece, which realises its func­tion — crea­ting space for personal deve­lo­p­ment through sports, game and retreat — in bril­liant harmony with its surroun­dings.

We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Designer

Madei­guincho
Rua do Casal Quei­mado, Nº12
PT — 2750–492  Cascais

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

CopenHill

Form kisses function

CopenHill in Copenhagen

BIG

Hedonistic sustainability

CopenHill, also known as Amager Bakke, opens as a new breed of waste-to-energy plant topped with a ski slope, hiking trail and clim­bing wall, embo­dying the notion of hedo­ni­stic sustaina­bi­lity while alig­ning with Copenhagen’s goal of beco­ming the world’s first carbon-neutral city by 2025.

CopenHill is a 41,000m² waste-to-energy plant with an urban recrea­tion center and envi­ron­mental educa­tion hub, turning social infra­struc­ture into an archi­tec­tural land­mark.

Social side-effects

CopenHill is conceived as a public infra­struc­ture with intended social side-effects from day one. Repla­cing the adja­cent 50-year old waste-to-energy plant with Amager Ressource­center (ARC), CopenHill’s new waste inci­ne­ra­ting faci­li­ties inte­grate the latest tech­no­lo­gies in waste treat­ment and energy produc­tion.

Due to its loca­tion on the indus­trial water­front of Amager, where raw indus­trial faci­li­ties have become the site for extreme sports from wake­boar­ding to go-kart racing, the new power plant adds skiing, hiking and rock clim­bing to thrill seekers’ wish lists.

Form kisses function

The internal volumes of the power plant are deter­mined by the precise posi­tio­ning and orga­niza­tion of its machi­nery in height order, crea­ting an effi­cient, sloping rooftop fit for a 9,000m² ski terrain.

At the top, experts can glide down the arti­fi­cial ski slope with the same length as an Olympic half-pipe, test the free­style park or try the timed slalom course, while begin­ners and kids prac­tice on the lower slopes.

Skiers ascend the park from the platter lift, carpet lifts or glass elevator for a glimpse inside the 24-hour opera­tions of a waste inci­ne­rator.

Walking on waste

Recrea­tion buffs and visi­tors reaching the summit of CopenHill will feel the novelty of a moun­tain in an other­wise-flat country. Non-skiers can enjoy the rooftop bar, cross-fit area, clim­bing wall or highest viewing plateau in the city before descen­ding the 490m tree-lined hiking and running trail within a lush, moun­tai­nous terrain desi­gned by Danish Land­scape Archi­tects SLA.

Mean­while, the 10,000m² green roof addresses the chal­len­ging micro-climate of an 85m high park, rewil­ding a biodi­verse land­scape while absor­bing heat, remo­ving air parti­cu­lates and mini­mi­zing storm­water runoff.

Best of both worlds

Beneath the slopes, whir­ring furnaces, steam, and turbines convert 440,000 tons of waste annu­ally into enough clean energy to deliver elec­tri­city and district heating for 150,000 homes. The neces­si­ties of the power plant to complete this task, from venti­la­tion shafts to air-intakes, help create the varied topo­graphy of a moun­tain; a man-made land­scape created in the encounter between the needs from below and the desires from above.

Ten floors of admi­nis­tra­tive space are occu­pied by the ARC team, inclu­ding a 600m² educa­tion center for academic tours, work­shops and sustaina­bi­lity confe­rences.

Après-ski at the waste-to-energy plant

Rather than consider ARC as an isolated archi­tec­tural object, the buil­ding enve­lope is conceived as an oppor­tu­nity for the local context while forming a desti­na­tion and a reflec­tion on the progres­sive vision of the company.

CopenHill’s conti­nuous façade comprises 1.2m tall and 3.3m wide aluminum bricks stacked like gigantic bricks over­lap­ping with each other. In-between, glazed windows allow daylight to reach deep inside the faci­lity, while larger openings on the southwest façade illu­mi­nate work­sta­tions on the admi­nis­tra­tive floors.

On the longest vertical façade, an 85m clim­bing wall is installed to be the tallest arti­fi­cial clim­bing wall in the world for new world records to be broken with views inside the factory. At the bottom of the ski slope, a 600m² après-ski bar welcomes locals and visi­tors to wind down once the boots are off. Form­erly a piece of infra­struc­ture in an indus­trial zone, CopenHill becomes the new desti­na­tion for fami­lies, friends and cele­bra­tion, one that is econo­mic­ally, envi­ron­men­tally and soci­ally profi­table.

We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Architects

BIG
Kløver­blads­gade 56
2500 Valby
DK — Copen­hagen

Address

Amager Bakke
Vind­møl­levej 6
DK — 2300 Køben­havn

Companies involved

SLA, Lüchinger+Meyer, MOE, Rambøll, Jesper Kong­shaug, BIG Ideas

Wett­be­werb: AKT, Topotek 1, Man Made Land, Realities:United

Text

BIG

Staff

Bjarke Ingels, David Zahle, Jakob Lange, Brian Yang, Jesper Boye Andersen, Claus Hermansen, Nanna Gyld­holm Møller

Team: Alberto Cumer­lato, Alek­sander Wadas, Alex­ander Codda, Alex­ander Ejsing, Alex­andra Gustafsson, Alina Tamo­si­unaite, Armor Gutierrez, Anders Hjortnæs, Andreas Klok Pedersen, Annette Jensen, Ariel Wallner, Ask Andersen, Balaj IIulian, Blake Smith, Borko Nikolic, Brygida Zawadzka, Buster Chris­tensen, Chris Falla, Chris Zhong­tian Yuan, Daniel Selensky, Dennis Rasmussen, Espen Vik, Finn Nørkjær, Franck Fdida, Gonzalo Castro, Gül Ertekin, George Abraham, Helen Chen, Henrick Poulsen, Henrik Rømer Kania, Horia Spirescu, Jakob Ohm Laursen, Jean Strand­holt, Jelena Vucic, Jeppe Ecklon, Ji-young Yoon, Jing Xu, Joanna Jaku­bowska, Johanna Nenander, Kamilla Heskje, Katar­zyna Sied­lecka, Krzy­sztof Marci­szewski, Laura Wätte, Liang Wang, Lise Jessen, Long Zuo, Maciej Zawadzki, Mads Enggaard Stidsen, Marce­lina Kolas­inska, Marcos Bano, Maren Allen, Mathias Bank, Matti Nørgaard, Michael Andersen, Nari­sara Ladawal Schröder, Niklas A. Rasch, Nynne Madsen, Øssur Nolsø, Pero Vukovic, Richard Howis, Ryohei Koike, Se Hyeon Kim, Simon Masson, Sunming Lee, Toni Mateu, Xing Xiong, Zoltan David Kalaszi, Tore Banke, Yehez­kiel Wili­ardy

Videos

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Identity through Skate Parks

What sports can do

Skate parks in areas of crisis: photo exhibition and presentation at the FSB

Ralf Maier

Cohesion

Sport streng­thens us, espe­ci­ally in the commu­nity. When ever­yday life really chal­lenges us, our need for balance and stabi­lity becomes even greater. We know that, studies show that.

The importance of sports and sports faci­li­ties in crisis areas is ther­e­fore simply huge. The FSB shows this impres­si­vely with the photo exhi­bi­tion “Iden­tity through Skate Parks” and the lecture “Skate Parks — elements of peace­ma­king in crisis areas”.

Skating faci­li­ties combine sports, indi­vi­dual and social aspects. They offer less stan­dar­dised compe­ti­tion areas and leave plenty of room for indi­vi­dua­lity. It’s not about personal bests, it’s about iden­tity, self-confi­dence and cohe­sion. In crisis areas, skate parks are ther­e­fore a school for life.

Exhibition and lecture

Ralf Maier has built many such faci­li­ties — inclu­ding Afgha­ni­stan, Beth­lehem, Namibia, India and most recently in Damascus. The photo exhi­bi­tion “Iden­tity through Skate Parks” at the exhi­bi­tion boule­vard shows its faci­li­ties throug­hout the entire FSB, namely from 5 to 8 November 2019 — on large-format, impres­sive pictures with lots of happy people.

Under the title “Skate Parks — elements of peace­ma­king in crisis areas”, Ralf Maier pres­ents these projects (and more) on 7 November at the FSB. The lecture is part of Land­scape Archi­tect Day orga­nised by the BDLA.

Who does something like this?

In order to imple­ment such projects, you indeed need a few coura­geous and deter­mined people. One of these is Titus Ditt­mann, a former sports teacher and himself a pioneer of skate­boar­ding in Germany. He reco­g­nised the huge poten­tial of skate parks for huma­ni­ta­rian projects and founded the skate-aid foun­da­tion. Today, skate-aid is the moral and often the finan­cial sponsor of the vast majo­rity of projects presented at the FSB.

Another is Ralf Maier, founder and owner of Maier Land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur / Beton­land­schaften (Cologne). The long-stan­ding BMX profes­sional and world cham­pion has been lending his support to skate-aid since the crea­tion of the foun­da­tion in 2009 in the role of hono­rary planner and land­scape archi­tect.

Diversification

Once completed, the skate parks will remain super­vised and offer free recrea­tional acti­vi­ties for children and young people, and of course regard­less of age, reli­gion, skin colour, social class and gender. In addi­tion to work­shops with free skate­board lessons, skate­boards, access­ories and protec­tive gear are provided. It also takes a lot of courage, resources and people to do it all.

Ther­e­fore, skate faci­li­ties are an important and sustainable contri­bu­tion to peace work in affected regions, which can change society on the ground. Sport can achieve all this.

Take a look.

Links…

…und further Infor­ma­tion

Exhibition

“Iden­tity through Skate Parks”
FSB Boule­vard
5 to 8 November 2019, all day

Further Informationen

Dipl.-Ing. Ralf Maier
maier land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur
Rösra­ther Straße 769
D‑51107 Cologne

Trade Fair

FSB 
Fach­messe für Frei­raum, Sport- und Bewe­gungs­ein­rich­tungen

skate-aid

skate-aid inter­na­tional e.V.
Wall­straße 86
D — 10179 Berlin 

Exhibition

“Iden­tity Foun­da­tion through Skate Parks”
FSB Messe-Boule­vard
5 to 8 November 2019, all day

maier landschaftsarchitektur at the FSB

Hall 7.1 | Stand D042

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
More Sports Media

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Health Megatrend

Health counts

Our sports motifs are changing

by Anja Kirig

Health Megatrend

Health is defined as one of the twelve so-called mega­trends. Accor­ding to the Zukunfts­in­stitut, the other eleven are Connec­ti­vity, Gender Shift, Globa­liza­tion, Indi­vi­dua­liza­tion, Know­ledge Culture, Mobi­lity, Neo Ecology, New Work, Secu­rity, Silver Society, and Urba­niza­tion.

Health as a mega­trend is under­going an elemen­tary change and will soon merge into a “quality of life” mega­trend. In this context, it is already possible to observe how health as a sporting motif is chan­ging and how the exer­cising society is being revi­ta­lised.

Inner balance as a sports motif

Health moti­va­tion is at the heart of this change. While nowa­days prima­rily the physical aspects such as weight reduc­tion, cardio trai­ning, back pain or general prophy­laxis are at the centre of our efforts, in future the desire for holi­stic well-being in the sense of mental balance will incre­asingly take centre stage. This will benefit outdoor sports in parti­cular. Moving outdoors, whether in a group or alone, is reco­gnized as a new source of resi­li­ence.

Although the health experts have been explai­ning the healing effect of move­ment on the psyche for years, this advice has so far mostly reached people who where in a patho­lo­gical condi­tion. Those who did not like to out them­selves as depressed, anxious, burned out, emotio­nally unstable etc. or were just tempo­r­a­rily unwell (honestly, who isn’t from time to time?) did not feel addressed. There was a gap between the “perfor­mance tracking trail swim bike run” commu­nity and the “Kunda­lini yoga sobriety” group in which these people did not find a sports commu­nity. The health mega­trend is closing this gap.

Neither 12 steps nor 12 hours of ultra run

The demands on the indi­vi­dual, the comple­xity and speed of ever­yday life are perceived as incre­asingly chal­len­ging by many. The need for balance, more inner strength and stabi­lity is growing simul­ta­neously. Rese­arch studies have shown that outdoor sports such as moun­tain biking, clim­bing, kaya­king or year-round outdoor swim­ming can be powerful support for mental well-being. Espe­ci­ally women profit from this. And with new tech­no­lo­gies such as E‑Bikes nearly ever­y­body can take part irre­spec­tive of age, sport­i­ness, handicap etc.

Today’s health-oriented trai­ning groups are not concerned with fixed topics such as depres­sion, anxiety, drugs or the achie­ve­ment of new perfor­mance goals. Instead, they focus on incre­asing holi­stic well-being, general satis­fac­tion, inner stabi­lity and resi­li­ence.

New communities between self-help and outdoor sports

These new commu­ni­ties are located between self-help and trai­ning groups, are both at the same time and none of them. They are mostly informal groups, act online and offline, repre­sen­ting all kinds of life­styles and indi­vi­duals for whom self-care is the focus of the acti­vity. Moti­va­tion can be a mild or full-blown depres­sion, meno­pause, stress at work, loneli­ness or a general desire for trans­for­ma­tion.

#Runandtalk or Moun­tain for the Minds are already orga­nized concepts in the UK. These services must not focus on diagnosis or poten­tial dise­ases, but must take into account trans­for­ma­tive added value. It is not the speed or the best time that counts, but the effect on the indi­vi­dual.

Reflect Nature & Mind

„Reflect Arts & Mind“ was the motto of a corre­spon­ding festival in Corn­wall at the begin­ning of October. The art and commu­ni­ca­tion event took place over 3 days at the tidal pool in Bude which is open all year round and counts active winter swim­mers. The event focussed on the posi­tive influences that the coast, the tidal pool and the land­scape may have on people. But also the chal­lenges of the rural areas were addressed. While the city dweller is lonely in the commu­nity, the people in the coun­try­side feel cut off from infra­struc­ture, access and tech­no­logy. This is also a chall­enge for the inner stabi­lity of the indi­vi­dual.

Whether the motive is the hyper­com­ple­xity in ever­yday life or the lack of access, which creates the desire for more resi­li­ence and the estab­lish­ment of more self-suffi­ci­ency: The mega­trend health and its deve­lo­p­ment will deeply trans­form the future outdoor sports.

Anja Kirig

Anja Kirig has been working as a trend rese­ar­cher since 2005. Since 2014 she is inten­si­vely rese­ar­ching the chan­ging sports and fitness percep­tion.

Other focal points of her work are tourism and leisure, health and nutri­tion, sustaina­bi­lity and gender. The focus lies always on socio-cultural deve­lo­p­ments and their effects on life­styles and the resul­ting new struc­tures of need. 

Anja lives and works in Frankfurt/Main.

Videos

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Gersthofen Skate Park

Investing in the future

Gersthofen Skate Park

Schneestern

Situation

In Gerst­hofen, a fast-growing town borde­ring Augs­burg, the local skate commu­nity and the city admi­nis­tra­tion have agreed on one thing: While in many places a reno­va­tion of the outdoor pool or a new play­ground is being planned, the city of Gerst­hofen decided to invest almost 340,000 € in a new skate park featuring a bowl. But why a skate park?

Skate­boar­ding, BMX and scoo­ters have become an inte­gral part of society and repre­sent a shift to modern sporting beha­vior. A few years ago, skating was still considered a niche sport or just a hobby for rebel­lious teens. In the mean­time, the number of new users in the field of roller sports has been constantly incre­asing for years. A deve­lo­p­ment that is due to the reco­gni­tion of “Skate­boar­ding” as an Olympic disci­pline, but also due to the provi­sion of appro­priate sports faci­li­ties.

Participation

The new Gerst­hofen Skate Park was opened in June 2019. After nine months of cons­truc­tion, it replaces an outdated faci­lity.

In Gerst­hofen, modern sporting beha­vior with a trend towards indi­vi­dual sport should be promoted in a targeted manner using appro­priate infra­struc­ture. The new skate park appeals to a broad target group, can be used by a wide variety of user groups and is also intended to func­tion as a social meeting point.

In-situ concrete

Due to many advan­tages, such as resis­tance to vanda­lism and low main­ten­ance, the new plant was built comple­tely in in-situ concrete on an area of almost 1,000 m².

The company Bowl Cons­truc­tion AG, owned by Erwin Rech­steiner from Switz­er­land, was respon­sible for the plan­ning and design and has over 20 years of expe­ri­ence.

When plan­ning, great importance was atta­ched to an inte­grated design of the indi­vi­dual elements. As a result, the faci­lity by Schnee­stern lite­rally appears to be “made of one piece” and meets the requi­re­ments of the sport.

Community

It goes without saying that you need a suitable sports faci­lity for a parti­cular sport. And these sports can only grow with good infra­struc­ture. However, skating is more than just a perfor­mance-oriented sport, it is also about the social aspect. Although skating is an indi­vi­dual sport, it is prac­ticed amongst others.

That is why indoor and outdoor skate­parks are always meeting places where social inter­ac­tions take place and people of diffe­rent age groups and social classes have fun toge­ther. Many commu­ni­ties are inte­rested in crea­ting oppor­tu­ni­ties for their children and teen­agers to promote toge­ther­ness. Thus, the skate­park can be seen as both a meaningful and contem­po­rary invest­ment in the future of society.

Skate­parks are just one of several open space design and move­ment promo­tion options offered by Schnee­stern. Visit us at the Inter­na­tional Trade Fair for Amenity Areas, Sports and Move­ment Faci­li­ties in Cologne (FSB, Hall 7.1 Stall 024) from 5th to 8th November, and discover the possi­bi­li­ties of action sport infra­struc­tures with us.

We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Design

Bowl Cons­truc­tion AG
Kreuz­lin­ger­strasse 18
CH-8566 Neuwilen

Photos

Janik Steiner
Am Tier­garten 31
D — 88339 Bad Waldsee

Steffen Vollert (Titel)

Text

Matthias Schwarz & Marco Rues

Construction

Schnee­stern GmbH & Co. KG
Werner-von-Siemens-Str. 47
D‑87471 Durach

Opening

2019

Bike Parks & Equipment

The Schnee­stern Cata­logue

Address

Skate­park Gerst­hofen

Eichen­lohweg
D — 86368 Gerst­hofen

Video

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Melos Innovations

Melos Innovations

FSB novelties

Melos

MoveNow, the interactive LED flooring

Inter­ac­tive LED floo­ring creates inter­ac­tive, touch-sensi­tive surfaces that can shine in all colours and are inte­grated into walls like a monitor in floors. They create a new type of living envi­ron­ment that combines a wide variety of disci­plines: Mate­rials deve­lo­p­ment and sensor tech­no­logy, educa­tion and life­style, inno­va­tion manage­ment and urban plan­ning.

The tech­nical basis is a metal frame that accom­mo­dates all the neces­sary elec­tro­tech­nical compon­ents and is suitable for both indoor and outdoor appli­ca­tions. On it, a trans­pa­rent, slightly elastic PU mat is installed.

A speci­ally deve­loped game confi­gu­rator soft­ware allows for every possi­bi­lity of indi­vi­dua­li­sa­tion. Game ideas can be trans­ferred to surfaces in floors and walls in a way previously only known from computer games or on a small scale from board games.

Our greenkeeper is a robot

The importance of arti­fi­cial turf pitches, espe­ci­ally for foot­ball, is now acknow­ledged. However, the lasting quality and dura­bi­lity of the pitches depend very much on their main­ten­ance. This is a problem for many clubs needing volun­teer keepers to do this.

A comple­tely newly deve­loped robot can be a solu­tion here: In a single opera­tion, it brushes and groomes the turf auto­no­mously .

Various main­ten­ance programs are available via app. This new deve­lo­p­ment is called Turfrob and works comple­tely without super­vi­sion. For example at night.

The Turfrob will also be on display at the Melos stand during FSB.

Designing sports and leisure floorings

In the tradi­tional plan­ning of sports and leisure floo­rings, very diffe­rent tools were used, and these were not compa­tible: sket­ches on paper, project plans in Excel and hand­written contact data on the desk pad.

Now there is a new tool that orga­nizes all project phases such as design, calcu­la­tion and imple­men­ta­tion compre­hen­si­vely and digi­tally. It is called PROJECT­planner and can be used, among other things:

  • Buil­ding Infor­ma­tion Model­ling: BIM-compliant plan­ning
  • Simpli­fied measu­re­ment via import of exis­ting drawings or aerial photo­graphs
  • Intui­tive surface and draft design through inte­grated drawing tool
  • Conside­ra­tion of prepa­ra­tory work (subs­truc­ture / enclo­sure)
  • Auto­matic gene­ra­tion of offers and product requi­re­ment quan­ti­ties
  • Tender texts, instal­la­tion instruc­tions, tool lists and video tuto­rials
  • Direct orde­ring of project-related mate­rials via the app

PROJECT­planner powered by SYNLawn is perfect for buil­ding contrac­tors, archi­tects and specia­list plan­ners as well as for instal­ling and manu­fac­tu­ring compa­nies.

Learn more at FSB visi­ting Melos.

We did this.

Compa­nies involved & Links

Melos at FSB

Hall 10.2, Booth F040 /G041

Melos

Melos GmbH
Bismarck­strasse 4–10
D‑49324 Melle

FSB

Koeln­messe
5.11. — 8.11.2019

Interactive LED Floorings

MoveNow powered by Melos

Turf Maintenance Robot

Turfrob

Videos

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Preikestolen

Do not look down

Infinity Pool at Preikestolen

Hayri Atak

Tom Cruise at 604 m altitude

Prei­ke­stolen (“The Pulpit Rock”) is a tourist attrac­tion in Norway, a steep cliff which rises 604 metres above the Lysefjorden. Atop the cliff, there is an almost flat top of appro­xi­m­ately 25 by 25 metres. Prei­ke­stolen is located near the Western part of the fjord, and on its North side. The final fight scene in “Mission: Impos­sible – Fallout“ features Tom Cruise clim­bing the face of the cliff at Prei­ke­stolen.

Nine suites, one pool

Inspired by this scenic over­look, Hayri Atak Archi­tec­tural Design Studio has desi­gned a spec­ta­cular concept for an infi­nity pool and a boutique hotel. The proposal features the accom­mo­da­tions nestled onto a side of Prei­ke­stolen over the Lysefjorden fjords.

The canti­le­vered glass-bottom pool allows coura­geous swim­mers to enjoy the water while looking down into the fjord. The nine-suite hotel would be entered from the top of the cliff, with a common lounge area and guest rooms nestled into the face of the rock. The upper entryway would double as a scenic over­look, while real adven­ture seekers would want to venture to the pool deck.

Emotions

The entire concept was inspired by a photo­graph sent to studio founder Hayri Atak. Thrilled by the photo a friend took during her vaca­tion to Norway, Atak sought to capture the adre­na­line pumping scene into his archi­tec­ture. “Even though I wasn’t there, I expe­ri­enced the adre­na­line of being on the edge,” Atak said. “Then I dreamed of living on and beyond the edge. Simply, I just wanted to carry this expe­ri­ence beyond the edge and the idea of having this expe­ri­ence inspired me.”

Prei­ke­stolen attracts more than 300,000 visi­tors every year. You usually have to wait a long time to take a picture of the soli­tary crea­ture on the moun­tain plateau. For this reason alone it is hard to imagine that a hotel will ever be built here. It is, however, a lesson about the importance of emotions for archi­tec­ture. And it is a wonderful inspi­ra­tion and moti­va­tion for coura­geous ideas and designs.

We did this.

Archi­tect and address

Architect

Hayri Atak
Ataşehir – İstanbul
Türkei

Address

Prei­ke­stolen
4129 Songe­sand

Norwegen

Videos

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Path of Perspectives

Don’t think, look!

ThePath of Perspectives on the Innsbruck Nordkette

Snøhetta

About

The Path of Perspec­tives or “Perspek­ti­venweg”, desi­gned by Snøhetta for the Nord­ket­ten­bahn cable railway, intro­duces a series of ten archi­tec­tural elements along the panorama trail in the alpine land­scape that high­light the unique features of Innsbruck’s spec­ta­cular Nord­kette moun­tain range.

The Nord­kette is the southern­most moun­tain chain in the Karwendel, the largest moun­tain range of the Nort­hern Lime­s­tone Alps located just north of the Tyro­lean city of Inns­bruck.

Breathtaking

The Hunger­burg and Nord­kette funi­cu­lars bring visi­tors directly from the city center to the Seegrube cable car station at 1,905 meters above sea level, where the Path of Perspec­tives unfurls in breath­ta­king alpine surroun­dings. Here, the 2.8‑kilometer mean­de­ring panorama trail and its indi­vi­dual elements entice visi­tors to take a stroll up its 142-meter eleva­tional change.

Unique

Along the Path of Perspec­tives, the subtle archi­tec­tural inter­ven­tions blend seam­lessly into this spec­ta­cular land­scape, offe­ring visi­tors an oppor­tu­nity to expe­ri­ence the stag­ge­ring vistas of the alpine land­scape from diffe­rent perspec­tives. Every element, from the benches to the viewing plat­form, marks a unique point along the trail or serves as a meeting point. Using small design gestures, the desi­gners high­light striking elements of the Alpine land­scape, adding to the expe­ri­ence of the dramatic moun­tain scenery rather than crea­ting one eye-catching struc­ture.

Viewing platform

The viewing plat­form, which seems to grow out of the terrain, elegantly projects over the edge of the land­scape and empha­sizes the topo­gra­phical changes. Stan­ding on the plat­form, visi­tors can enjoy unin­ter­rupted views of the Inn Valley below, while the metal grate under­foot gives a sense of floa­ting above the terrain.

Staircase

At the tran­si­tion from the timber­line to scrub moun­tain pine vege­ta­tion, a stair­case struc­ture marks this natural pheno­menon. A counter allows hikers a chance to lean and admire their first impres­sion of the striking Langer Sattel and Frau Hitt peaks. The wooden plat­forms surroun­ding the gentle eleva­tion of the so-called “Big Stone” on various levels make it a popular resting spot. At a slightly higher eleva­tion, stepped wooden plat­forms form an amphi­theater. 

Steel

Each of the ten elements of the Path of Perspec­tives are shaped from Corten steel, a mate­rial choice that was inspired by the context and prior inter­ven­tions. “Perspek­ti­venweg” adapts the exis­ting tech­nical struc­tures of Nordkette’s avalanche barriers, which are made of the same weathered steel. Larch wood, typical for the local forests, forms its seating and recli­ning plat­forms.

Wittgenstein

Quotes from Austrian philo­so­pher Ludwig Witt­gen­stein are inscribed on the new archi­tec­tural features of Path of Perspec­tives. The words invite visi­tors to take a moment and reflect, both inwardly and out over the land­scape, giving a dual meaning to the path of perspec­tives.

One of them is, “Don’t think, look!”

We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Designer

Snohetta Studio Inns­bruck GmbH
Maria There­sien Strasse 57
A‑6020 Inns­bruck

Opening

2018

Photos

Chris­tian Flat­scher
Pradler Straße Nr. 34
A — 6020 Inns­bruck

Luft­bilder:
Quirin Müller

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Wals-Siezenheim Pump Track

Pump track instead of PlayStation

The Wals-Siezenheim Pump Track

Schneestern

1 million laps of Austria’s largest pump track

The asphalt Wals-Siezen­heim Pump Track is the largest in Austria. It is conve­ni­ently located directly next to the lake adja­cent to the motorway in Vieh­hausen. The faci­lity offers two mirrored tracks and a jump line situated on 900 m² of land.

Children, teen­agers and adults have been doing the rounds here since June 2017 – more than one million laps in just two years! This corre­sponds to 3.66 circum­na­vi­ga­tions of the earth or 146,000 km of driving distance.

One million laps on the Wals-Siezen­heim Pump Track take about 7,300 hours or over 300 days. This just goes to prove that it is still wort­hwhile crea­ting alter­na­tives to mobile phones and the Play­Sta­tion.

Fresh air instead of a console

But what exactly is a Pump Track and what makes it so popular? The Wals-Siezen­heim Pump Track is a multi­func­tional faci­lity consis­ting of roller tracks and small berms. The track can be used with almost any roller sports equip­ment: with wheels, bikes, skate­boards or scoo­ters.

The trend towards indi­vi­dual sports was taken into account during plan­ning and cons­truc­tion. The Wals-Siezen­heim Pump Track very quickly attracts a large number of diffe­rent users – the fresh air alter­na­tive to mobile phones and game consoles.

Pump up Wals-Siezenheim

The up-and-down move­ment of the body, so-called “pumping”, gene­rates risk-free speed. This is why pump tracks have been clas­si­fied as one of the safer sports faci­li­ties. Further advan­tages: Spaces such as the Wals-Siezen­heim Pump Track are almost main­ten­ance-free, resistant to vanda­lism and produce only a low noise level.

All these very good reasons moti­vated the commu­nity of Wals-Siezen­heim to assume a kind of pionee­ring role in 2017. In coope­ra­tion with Schnee­stern, a German provider of action sports faci­li­ties of (almost) every kind, they decided to build the largest asphalt pump track in Austria.

Thanks to the crea­tive track design of two mirrored tracks, the Wals-Siezen­heim Pump Track also offers the perfect condi­tions to compete in compe­ti­tion. But whether in compe­ti­tion or just for fun: the Pump Track, which is very conve­ni­ently located next to an adven­ture play­ground, enhances the regional leisure acti­vi­ties enorm­ously.

Success through multifunctionality

Mayor Joachim Mais­linger considers the decision to build the Wals-Siezen­heim Pump Track to be the answer to the demands placed on modern muni­cipal sports faci­li­ties. “Abso­lutely ever­y­thing that has wheels is on the move here. The target group is age-inde­pen­dent and, with bikes, skate­boards, scoo­ters and inline skates, it offers much more diver­sity than conven­tional muni­cipal sports faci­li­ties.

Other muni­ci­pa­li­ties are now follo­wing this example and inves­ting in the future with a space such as this.

Schnee­stern will also be atten­ding the FSB (inter­na­tional trade fair for public spaces, sports or leisure faci­li­ties) in Cologne. Visit us in hall 7.1 booth 024.

We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Design and construction

Schnee­stern GmbH & Co. KG
Werner-von-Siemens-Str. 47
D‑87471 Durach

Address

Ufer­straße 27
5071 Vieh­hausen
Öster­reich

Text

Matthias Schwarz & Marco Rues

Videos

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

vital:werk

A lesson in harmony

The vital:werk in Waldshut-Tiengen

DUFFNER ARCHITEKTEN BDA

About

In autumn 2018, the comple­tely reno­vated and signi­fi­cantly expanded indoor pool with sauna opened in Waldshut-Tiengen, a district town in Baden-Würt­tem­berg with just under 25,000 inha­bi­tants. It is now called vital:werk.

The buil­ding complex from the 1970s, which also includes the town hall, no longer met today’s requi­re­ments for acces­si­bi­lity, fire protec­tion and buil­ding services. In addi­tion, the faci­li­ties offered should be extended to be in keeping with the times.

Room acou­sti­cally effec­tive real wood surfaces by Ligno­trend support the lively and harmo­nious impres­sion of the pool.

All in one

The vital:werk was to be func­tion­ally combined with rooms for theatre, concerts and sports, equipped for the future, and be attrac­tively and econo­mic­ally desi­gned.

Until the buil­ding appli­ca­tion, a consor­tium of four archi­tects worked toge­ther on the plan­ning concept for the entire complex, after which the indi­vi­dual areas were sepa­rated.

A new pres­ti­gious foyer buil­ding was erected in front of the exis­ting buil­ding. In addi­tion, a new sauna complex was created, which is situated under the ground with two atriums.

The vital:werk

The moder­ni­sa­tion and expan­sion of the indoor swim­ming pool was planned by the archi­tect Michael Duffner, who is based in Waldshut-Tiengen. The vital:werk has been extended by around 500 m². A compe­ti­tion pool was already in place, the flexible lear­ning pool with cubic capa­city floor and slide as well as an addi­tional toddler bathing area with play attrac­tions are new.

Equipped with now three pools, a play area and a comfor­table heated lounging area, the vital:werk is now ideal for fami­lies, as well as swim­ming clubs and school sports.

Zest and atmosphere

Wood played a crucial role in the inte­rior design of the baths. The plan­ners wanted to create a quiet and at the same time lively and harmo­nious atmo­sphere, and they have succeeded very well.

The finely profiled real wood surfaces made of light, knot­less, processed silver fir wood make a decisive contri­bu­tion to this posi­tive impres­sion. They are arranged undu­la­ting between the concrete beams of the ceiling on a wooden struc­ture. They are called Ligno Acou­stic light and were manu­fac­tured by cross lami­nated timber specia­list Ligno­trend.

In order to enhance the charisma of the wood surface, the archi­tects wanted to inte­grate the neces­sary ceiling fixtures as discreetly as possible. The openings for the venti­la­tion system, for example, are desi­gned as narrow joints between panels and joists. The lighting was comple­tely decou­pled from the wooden elements.

Of course, all built-in elements meet the buil­ding physics requi­re­ments. There is no reason why wood should not be used for indoor swim­ming pools. The mate­rial will always remain dry. To meet the requi­re­ments for a public assembly room, a special version of the acou­stic panels fulfils the criterion of a “flame-retar­dancy of the surface”.

Anything else?

Even in a sepa­rate room for events with plenty of glass, which serves school classes and swim­ming clubs as a teaching room, Ligno Acou­stic light panels are installed on the wall and improve the acou­stic atmo­spheres. This also applies to the pool attendant’s room. 

In the sauna, the archi­tects adapted the surfaces to the furnis­hings. Ther­e­fore, they decided to use fine-grained hemlock fir instead of silver fir.

Conclusion

After almost three years of cons­truc­tion, the ensemble consis­ting of  town hall and vital:werk was reopened in autumn 2018. The buil­ding, which has been expanded to a total of 3,600 m² — almost doubling in size — now accom­mo­dates around 1,200 visi­tors.

Thanks to its successful design and the clever and sustainable choice of mate­rials used, it quickly became the most promi­nent cultural centre of Waldshut-Tiengen.

We did this.

Project data and compa­nies involved

Architects

Michael Duffner
Dipl.-Ing. Freier Archi­tekt BDA
Kalva­ri­en­berg­strasse 1 a
D — 79761 Waldshut-Tiengen

Overall design

S 4 Archi­tekten Waldshut-Tiengen
Michael Duffner, Gerold Müller, Henning Musahl, Ernesto Preiser

Text

Iris Darstein-Ebner
Ruess Public T GmbH

Photos

Ligno­trend / Foto: Foto&Design, Waldshut-Tiengen

Operator & adress

vital:werk
Fried­rich­straße 9
D‑79761 Waldshut-Tiengen

Ceiling panels

Ligno­trend
Land­strasse 25
D–79809 Weil­heim-Bann­holz

Wood in indoor swimming pools

The ideal choice

Moisture behaviour

The intrinsic mois­ture of wood remains uncri­ti­cally low even in the typical indoor climate. The mate­rial is also insen­si­tive to chlo­rine-conta­mi­nated air. In indoor swim­ming pools, wooden elements outside of the spray water area can be used without hesi­ta­tion, because the common venti­la­tion systems with humi­dity control define both indoor climate and wood mois­ture. At an assumed tempe­ra­ture of 30°C and a rela­tive humi­dity of 55% to a maximum of 75%, it sets itself at about 14%. This is a value that is defi­ni­tely too dry for harmful orga­nisms like mould.

Room acoustics

The room acou­stics effect of the elements is achieved mainly by natural wood fibre absor­bers, which are inte­grated behind the joints of the cover layer in the elements. This allows absorp­tion values αW up to 0.90 to be achieved and diffe­rent room acou­stics targets to be imple­mented, as required in the rele­vant direc­tives, for example in DIN 18041 in Germany. For highest buil­ding biology quality, the panels are tested accor­ding to the parti­cu­larly strict certi­fi­ca­tion system “nature­plus”.

Fire protection

The flame-retar­dant Ligno real wood acou­stic panels treated with a new impreg­na­tion, show their natural wood tone authen­ti­cally and thus stand in a char­ming contrast to the other­wise rather hard and cool-looking mate­rials that were used in Waldshut. In case of fire, sani­tary fire-retar­dants in the wood delay the spread of the fire.

Lignotrend

Ligno­trend is known for inno­va­tion, high quality and free confi­gu­ra­tion of the products in terms of indi­vi­dual requi­re­ments. Safe buil­ding with free plan­ning is possible without rest­ric­tions with the products of the company. With product deve­lo­p­ment, ther­e­fore, the focus is clearly on the archi­tec­tural class and the best buil­ding struc­tural physics proper­ties (room acou­stics, sound insu­la­tion and large spans).

Health safety and ecolo­gical harm­less­ness as well as long-term func­tion­a­lity and value reten­tion are the central compon­ents of the product philo­sophy — certi­fied accor­ding to the strict rules of nature­plus e.V.

The company Ligno­trend based in Weil­heim-Bann­holz (Germany) has been produ­cing cross-lami­nated timber elements for modern timber cons­truc­tion since 1992. They are used throug­hout Europe in resi­den­tial cons­truc­tion and in muni­cipal / commer­cial buil­ding cons­truc­tion. Ligno­trend curr­ently employs 130 people and has a produc­tion capa­city of 200,000 m² per year. 

The company’s product range includes solu­tions for cons­truc­tion, inte­rior design and facades – from load-bearing wall, ceiling and roof elements to acou­stic panels, insu­la­tion stands and facade panels.

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.

Pump tracks — The New Roller Sports Facilities

Pump tracks at the FSB

A bdla seminar in Cologne

maier landschaftsarchitektur

“Pump tracks — The New Roller Sports Facilities” at the FSB

Pump tracks are beco­ming incre­asingly important. That’s why the seminar “Pump tracks — The New Roller Sports Faci­li­ties” will take place on November 7th in Cologne during the bdla day at the FSB. Ralf Maier is one of the spea­kers. FSB is the world’s largest and most important trade fair for the cons­truc­tion and opera­tion of sports and leisure faci­li­ties. These are three very good reasons to come to Cologne on November 7th. Here are a few more.

The Seminar

Pump tracks are abso­lutely on the rise. Ther­e­fore, they are no longer built from earth or clay, but using perma­nent asphalt cons­truc­tion. This turns a simple cycle track into a multi­func­tional sports complex for a wide variety of user groups such as MTB riders, BMX riders, skate­boar­ders, long­boar­ders, inline skaters, roller skaters and of course wheel­chair users.

This momen­tous deve­lo­p­ment raises ques­tions — the seminar answers them. Four lectures deal with the plan­ning requi­re­ments, and the safety and social importance of these faci­li­ties. For these topics there are many instruc­tive as well as spec­ta­cular examples in already realised projects. We are very happy that Ralf Maier will present two of these topics.

Orga­niser of the seminar is the Asso­cia­tion of German Land­scape Archi­tects (bdla), the Nord­rhein-West­falen state group. The event is reco­g­nised with two hours of trai­ning for land­scape archi­tects and archi­tects from the NW work group. The complete programme of the seminar and the regis­tra­tion form can be found here.

The FSB

From the 5th to the 8th November, more than 600 compa­nies from 45 count­ries will present their range of services at the Cologne trade fair. The FSB (Inter­na­tional Trade Fair for Freedom, Sports and Exer­cise Faci­li­ties) concen­trates on all topics rela­ting to the areas of open space plan­ning and design, sports faci­lity archi­tec­ture, play­grounds, sports equip­ment, exer­cise areas and leisure faci­li­ties — making it the industry meeting place. More about the FSB can be found here.

maier land­scape archi­tec­ture can be found in Hall 7.1 | Stand D042. We look forward to you paying us a visit!

The bdla day

For the third time, the so-called bdla day will take place on the FSB and in the context of the planner FORUM. In Rhine­land one speaks already about it being a tradi­tion.

“Pump tracks — The new roller sports faci­li­ties” is part of the bdla day. The seminar is aimed at plan­ners, buil­ders and sports clubs. It provides basics and decision support for the plan­ning and imple­men­ta­tion of pump tracks using asphalt cons­truc­tion.

Further infor­ma­tion about the bdla day can be found here.

Links…

…and further Infor­ma­tion

Further informationen

Dipl.-Ing. Ralf Maier
maier land­schafts­ar­chi­tektur
Rösra­ther Straße 769
D‑51107 Köln

Date

7 November 2019, 1 p.m.

Trade fair

FSB 
Fach­messe für Frei­raum, Sport- und Bewe­gungs­ein­rich­tungen

Text

Johannes Bühl­be­cker
More Sports Media

Visit our Blog

At “More Sports. More Archi­tec­ture.” you will find func­tional, spec­ta­cular and simply beau­tiful buil­dings and faci­li­ties for sports and leisure.
GDPR Cookie Consent with Real Cookie Banner