Nothing but boredom

The design of an athle­tics faci­lity is actually as boring as it is stan­dar­dised and predic­table as its subse­quent use: curve, straight, curve, straight — as long as you want. Perfectly stan­dar­dized sports archi­tec­ture is as universal as little else: the track is thus 400 metres long, the bend radius is 36.5 metres and the lane width 1.22 metres. Same in Elda, a city with 55,000 inha­bi­tants northwest of Alicante.

Elda stadium meets all these criteria, but adds a spec­ta­cular inno­va­tion to the range of sports faci­li­ties on offer: a “Bonus Track”. The Spanish archi­tects of subar­qui­tec­tura (Alicante) added six six extra lanes that branch off behind and above the stand at the begin­ning of the straight and rejoin the straight at the far end of the stand.

Great gesture, bold attitude

This grand design gesture is also func­tion­ally plau­sible: the addi­tional lanes form a roof over the curved chan­ging room area and form the rear demar­ca­tion of a small grand­stand with a capa­city of 300 spec­ta­tors. In addi­tion to the two chan­ging rooms, the 350 m² area also includes office and storage rooms, a multi­pur­pose room and spec­tator toilets.

The consis­tent avoid­ance of elabo­rate mate­rials and details — the façade design is reduced to a sheet steel grid with a band of windows — under­lines the bold atti­tude of the plan­ners.

Accessible for everyone

Faci­lity access and use of Elda stadium are barrier-free. Visi­tors and athletes enter the chan­ging rooms and the inte­rior through the ground floor tunnel. Tracks and inclines are desi­gned to be suitable for wheel­chair users

Great everyday life

Elda stadium raises the stan­dar­dised athle­tics compe­ti­tion area to the third dimen­sion. At the same time, viewers are moving into a new, central posi­tion. This solu­tion may be hard to realize for large compe­ti­tions with many spec­ta­tors, but it is a great impulse for the much more frequent daily sporting acti­vi­ties.