Drei Architekten realized the replacement building of the Dreifeld-Sporthalle Vocational School Center Esslingen-Zell in Stuttgart, Germany.

The single-storey solid construction consists of a three-part sports hall, a gymnastics and fitness room, the associated equipment and changing rooms as well as the necessary technical areas. The facade cladding with black fiber cement panels – in the upper area as a wave, in the lower area as flat panels – and the color-coordinated facade profiles create a homogeneous and independent structure.

All essential areas can be reached from the main entrance via a common, wide hallway. The sports hall is spanned by sturdy glulam beams with attached wooden box elements that support a gently sloping and green roof. Inside, the building is made up of a few restrained materials such as exposed concrete and white glazed wooden surfaces. In contrast to this, the floors of all sports areas were made of an oxide-red linoleum, the color of which was taken up again in the tiles in the shower areas and in one of the corridor walls. The main volume the sports hall is illuminated through the continuous glazing in the high longitudinal facades, while the floor-to-ceiling glazing in the changing areas and the round skylights in the corridor area ensure natural light for the adjacent areas.

The building was designed in accordance with the KFW-55 standard and is connected to the local heating supply network of the vocational schools. The mechanical ventilation system was limited to the changing rooms and the gym. Attention was paid to a sustainable ecological balance during the entire planning and construction process, e.g. with the use of foam glass gravel under the floor slab and with the partial use of demolition concrete prepared on site from the preceding hall.

The interventions in the outdoor facilities were limited to the necessary extent: existing trees were preserved as far as possible and supplemented with replacement plantings, and only the open spaces affected by the new building were renewed.

Design: Drei Architekten
Photography: Zooey Braun