Go ahead and climb onto the roof

Six-Court Sports Hall Dösner Weg in Leipzig

Planner

wörner traxler richter planungsgesellschaft mbH
Goetheallee 23
D-01309 Dresden

Client

City of Leipzig – Office for Building Management

Special Features

Leipzig's largest school construction project
Saxony's first community school (grades 1–12)
Six-court sports hall as the first construction phase
Sports and recreation facilities also usable outside school hours
Hall roof as a publicly accessible sports landscape

Address

Six-Court Sports Hall Dösner Weg
Dösner Weg 39–41
D-04275 Leipzig

Opening

2025

Photos

Albrecht Voss

Text

Johannes Bühlbecker
More Sports Media
(Advertorial)

Sports areas are a scarce resource. The Six-Court Sports Hall Dösner Weg in Leipzig shows an architectural solution to this problem: while training and competitions take place on six courts inside, a public sports landscape with a running track, a kickabout pitch, a basketball court, and a calisthenics area was created on the roof. A project that intelligently connects school, city, and open space.

A new campus for Leipzig

The six-court sports hall is part of the Campus Dösner Weg, currently the largest new school construction project in the city of Leipzig. Here, Saxony's first community school for grades one through twelve is being built. The pedagogical concept relies on so-called learning houses, in which teaching, common, and differentiation areas are combined into functional clusters.

The sports hall was completed in 2025 as the first construction phase. It operates independently of the later school operations and is available both for school sports and for clubs and recreational athletes.

A six-court sports hall already ranks among the largest hall types in school sports. At Campus Dösner Weg in Leipzig, however, the planning doesn't stop at the hall roof. Instead, a second level for movement, sport, and recreation was created above it – freely accessible, barrier-free, and integrated into everyday school life as well as into the public life of the new urban quarter.

This makes the sports hall itself the foundation for an additional sports landscape. Especially in densely built-up cities, the project shows how high-quality spaces for movement can be created without sealing additional land.

Two halls, one sports landscape

Inside, the building is divided into two three-court halls. One of the two halls has a spectator stand, making it suitable for competitions and events as well. Exposed concrete, wood surfaces, and restrained color design create a bright, robust atmosphere.

The real highlight, however, lies above. A generous outdoor staircase and a barrier-free ramp lead students, club members, and visitors up to the roof. There, a fully usable sports and recreation facility was created, featuring a kickabout pitch, a basketball court, a calisthenics area, seating and gathering spaces, as well as a roughly 220-meter running track that encircles the roof. The access structure also serves as a stand for events on the schoolyard. The plans illustrate just how consistently this second sports level was integrated into the overall design from the start.

Six-Court Sports Hall Features

Two three-court halls
Spectator stand for competitions
Flexible division into six playing courts
Separate access for school and club sports
Exposed concrete and wood surfaces
Column-free hall construction
Passive house standard

The dimensions of the six-court sports hall are impressive in their own right. Two three-court halls, one of them with a spectator stand, provide space for school, club, and competitive sports. Large reinforced concrete beams span the halls without columns and remain deliberately visible inside. Together with wood surfaces, exposed concrete, and a restrained color scheme, they create a robust, bright architecture that doesn't hide its construction but turns it into a design feature.

Even in urban terms, the building surprisingly holds back. Parts of the hall were embedded into the terrain, reducing its apparent height within the quarter. Only upon entering does the true scale of the facility reveal itself – along with the idea that lies above it.

Sport also happens up top

Via a generous outdoor staircase and a barrier-free ramp system, the hall roof itself becomes a space for movement. Instead of an unused roof area, a second sports level was created here with a running track, kickabout pitch, basketball court, calisthenics facility, and gathering areas among trees, shrubs, and perennials. At the same time, the retention roof takes on stormwater retention functions and improves the campus's microclimate.

What's particularly compelling here is the consistency of the design. The roof doesn't just fulfill technical functions – it naturally becomes part of the sports and open-space concept. Indoors and outdoors, building and landscape, school and quarter grow together into a single facility whose true quality only reveals itself on closer inspection.

Roof Features

approx. 3,400 m² of walkable roof area
Kickabout pitch
Basketball court
Calisthenics facility
approx. 220 m running track
Gathering areas with trees and greenery
Barrier-free access via ramp and outdoor staircase

What you'll learn here:

The most exciting sports area of this project lies exactly where you'd least expect it: here, the roof is neither a technical plant room nor leftover space, but a natural part of the sports offering. Perhaps that's the real idea behind this project: not always building bigger – but making more consistent use of existing space. The fact that this becomes more than just a good idea is down to the precise interplay of planning, construction, material choice, and craftsmanship. Only then does a hall roof become a durable, resilient sports facility.