Program
Sport & Leisure
Completion
1991
The construction of an indoor sports stadium poses three fundamental problems: 1. The issue of adherence to a determined arrangement of urban structures, and that of the formal tension likely to result between the new building and its surroundings. 2. The question of architectural expression, in view of proposals regarding function and planning. 3. The matter of the roof, a unique factor in buildings designed as covered spaces for spectators and athletes. Common to these three points is the project's large scale. With a length of 150 m. and a width of 120 m., the Municipal Sports Stadium of Badalona has a seating capacity of 12.500 spectators. In the sense of a principal place for a specific activity, such as, in this instance, high competition basketball, the building is meant to symbolize and represent the concept of a sports cathedral.
The concept of cathedral is synonymous with a large covered space. Here, the space to be covered is at the end of an urban sequence. Having crossed this sequence, the spectator arrives at a place where dimension, proportion and light combine to arouse emotion. The building must be meaningful in itself, apart from the activity that it serves. However, it must also be a place where the spectators and players form an undeniable part of the spectacle and where each individual counts as a unit of spatial measurement. The site chosen for the Sports Stadium is in the upper zone or Badalona, at a point where dissimilar sections of the urban structure merge and the significative and emblematic values of the city are lost. Thus, the highway acts as a natural boundary for the lot, the other limits of which are defined by various end products of economic speculation and urban vulgarity.