Sport facility / Gym
Matosinhos, Portugal.
Proa Climbing Center is an indoor sports hall specialized in climbing and bouldering.
The project takes place at a 500m2 old warehouse to create the infrastructure and necessary amenities for the gym users.
Bouldering is a conglumerante activity that naturally gathers around users from different levels/experience to help each other out and discuss new technics or ways to address a given issue. Users come together on the surroundings of the wall, such as the access corridors or even the matresses, therefore, it is fair to say that these areas are to be considered as a social spaces. This is the core aspect of the project: provide the most area possible for interpersonal interaction and boulders in order to create the community feeling.
At the entrance, front desk and changing rooms mediate the peaceful transition from public space and gym activity trough a large “ground to ceiling gate”, that connects directly to the street, as an extension of the public space itself.
The public informal space atmosphere reverberates into the gym throughtout the narrow access corridor to promote interaction, bringing people closer together.
Nevertheless, circulation strategy allows two levels of interaction and control: the user perspective on the ground floor provides access to the gym functional services while the visitor perspective is circumscribe to the lobby and upper level mezzanine where is granted a global view of the climbing walls and bouldering areas.
Users gain access to climbing hall and changing room - a very compact space with showers, lockers, etc. - but also, along side with visitors, one can access the cafeteria services and chill-out areas on the upper level.
Without rethorics, spaces are striped down to the bare essencials to make the best out of the available budget. Industrialized materials give a rough, yet human, feel to the space. Tectonics comes to play with an intereting combination of concrete blocks providing structure and mass, where the lightwheight mezzanine made from kerto wood panels comes to rest.
Dry, simple, effective detailling contributes to the informal atmosphere where contrast is to be made with material expression and color scheme.
The project is the result of close collaboration with the wall production company (Walltopia) and the promoter (3 experienced climbers) in order to harmoniously integrate the artificial landscape of the climbing walls, whose sculptural characteristics are rich in angles and projections that defy the laws of gravity. The objective of this project was not only to provide the necessary phisical means to implement a rapidly growing sports facility - which is getting a lot of traction - but to institute, develop and grow a intergenerational sense of community.
Photo Credits
©Jose Campos Photographer
