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PEG, a center of excellence for the training of young people in racket sports

Michele Zago Architetti

Sport&Leisure  /  Completed
Michele Zago Architetti

The sports court project is located on land in the municipality of Agno of approximately 8,000 square meters. The project is proposed as a center of excellence for the training of young people in racket sports: tennis, padel, beach tennis, table tennis. Next to the three pavilions housing 8 padel courts and 4 tennis courts, a multifunctional center of 1000 square meters on two levels has been designed. Here are housed both functions related purely to the sports, like changing rooms and services, as well as social and more aggregative functions, such as a bar-restaurant, a gym and a center for physiotherapy and health. The compact volumes containing the sports activities are hollowed out and rhythmized with functional openings that give a unified compositional language to the façades.

The dimensions of the sports fields were decisive for the composition of the urban and volumetric spaces. Great importance was given to the north-south connection axis, overlooking a canal, towards which all buildings were positioned. On this axis, a pedestrian path was created, enriched with native vegetation, which runs from the public entrance and, crossing the entrances of the padel and tennis courts, arrives at the service center and reconnects to a municipal road. Thanks to this axis, the project acts as a glue between two areas of the municipality of Agno apparently divided by their specific functions: residential on one side, craft and industrial on the other. The design concept is not simply functional but above all social, and in this sense the project fulfils both principles that a idea of architecture should always aspire to.

To minimize construction time and increase technological efficiency, all buildings were designed and constructed in prefabricated structures. The structures housing the sports fields feature triple-ply roofing, ideal for energy efficiency and reducing heat loss. The volume of the service center features a high-performance insulated prefabricated panel envelope and new generation systems that guarantee high environmental sustainability.

The enhancement of the north-south axis has substantially determined the success of the project. An initial positive effect has been that the new sports center has become a link and not a barrier between two city districts that were previously very distant from each other: in fact, the green path overlooking the canal is used daily by citizens and pupils from the nearby school to reach the city center. Moreover, the architectural result of this work was that the positioning of the sports volumes and annexes was a natural consequence of this choice. This decision also privileged the public and social function of town planning. The decision to include functions in the service center that are open to the public and not only dedicated to sports spaces (e.g. bar, gymnasium, medical center) also encouraged the openness of the project towards the community, favouring the integration of the architecture in the context and making the sports center a territorial incubator.

The inclusion of large sports facilities in an urban context together with the eclectic nature of the service center’s functions were the primary challenges of this project. The focus was also on the outdoor and green spaces that create, together with the context, a compositional and architectural harmony. The main result of this project is to have architecturally solved a major hitherto unsolved urban planning problem.

Credits

 Agno
 Svizzera
 privato
 sport center
 02/2024
 10.000 m2
 Confidential
 michelezagoarchitetti
 michelezagoarchitetti
 Matteo Aroldi- Alessandro Radice

Curriculum

Michele Zago Architetti is an international architecture firm based in Switzerland.
The company employs a team of architects, designers and landscape planners who work in synergy, bringing different skills and specializations, from interior to architectural design and from business plan to construction site management.
The firm has grown over the years, becoming one of the youngest and most quoted firm in the Southern Switzerland and northern Italy area. This is evidenced by the several projects developed for residential and commercial complexes, spaces for work areas, offices, showrooms, and hotels.
Since 2014, the project activity has focused on the development of architecture for hotels, resorts, villas, and residences, in Europe and the Middle East. The projects with the greatest international prominence include hotel The View in Lugano, GOacademy in Agno, Catrina Sky Resort & SPA in Disentis and the Swiss Compound in Oman.


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