Cricket and wedding

This breathtaking venue now also serves as a stage for weddings, birthday parties, social events, company outings, shows and concerts.

The archi­tec­ture and engi­nee­ring awards winning venue ist more than just a cricket stadium. 

This breath­ta­king place serve as an event venue for diffe­rent events inclu­ding wedding, birthday parties, social games, corpo­rate away day, show or concert and other events. It also has Bar, Restau­rant and Coffee shop.

The new pavi­lion, which also serves as a restau­rant is a fanta­stic feat of engi­nee­ring, built using 66,000 hand­made tiles in layers without using concrete. The arched pavi­lion design repres­ents the fall of a boun­cing ball and spec­tator seating will be carved out of the earth to mimic the terraced farms on the steep Kigali Hills that provide a spec­ta­cular back­drop.

The buil­ding grows out of the cut soil banking that was formed as the pitch was levelled — thus beco­ming part of the land­scape. The banking creates a wonderful natural amphi­theatre with great views to the pitch and wetland valley beyond.

Whilst the language of the buil­ding speaks about progres­sion and dyna­mism through extreme struc­tural effi­ci­ency, the mate­rials speak of the natural, the hand made and the human. It a buil­ding made by Rwandans using Rwandan mate­rials.

The tiles are produced on site from local soil by low skilled and skilled locals – hydrau­li­cally pressed with a small addi­tion of cement and do not require firing. They are laid in layers onto a tempo­rary timber skeleton — again using a combi­na­tion of low and higher skilled local labour and span up to 16m.

Simple, effi­cient and thin concrete tables are inserted into the vaults, provi­ding space for the more enclosed func­tions the service areas, the chan­ging rooms, an office and a restau­rant. These tables are topped with natural Rwandan agro-waste­fired tiles made of commonly found wetland clay.

The open mezza­nines — a bar and a club­house — enjoy wonderful raised clear pano­r­amic views over the Oval and wetland valley beyond

Bricks are used to define edges and spaces — often laid in perfo­rate bond – allo­wing the breeze and light to filter through. These bricks are sourced from enter­prises set up by Swiss NGO SKAT Consul­ting, and are also low carbon agro-waste-fired bricks using high effi­ci­ency kilns, further redu­cing energy and carbon.

Waste stone from Rwandan granite floor and work­tops are used for floo­ring.

The plywood rectan­gles used to press the tiles are reused as coun­ter­tops while timber and plywood from the vault guide­work is made into joinery and doors, ensu­ring that a maximum of waste mate­rial goes into primary produc­tion. Local slate is confi­gured to allow rain water to permeate and infil­trate the soil.

Retai­ning walls are either local granite boulders or are hollow to encou­rage plan­ting.

The buil­ding grows out of the cut soil banking that was formed as the pitch was levelled — thus beco­ming part of the land­scape. The banking creates a wonderful natural amphi­theatre with great views to the pitch and wetland valley beyond.

Whilst the language of the buil­ding speaks about progres­sion and dyna­mism through extreme struc­tural effi­ci­ency, the mate­rials speak of the natural, the hand made and the human. It a buil­ding made by Rwandans using Rwandan mate­rials.

The imper­fec­tions are cele­brated — they are human and beau­tiful — and when combined with the laye­ring of natural textures the buil­ding becomes imbues and cele­brates this wonderful place.