The biggest challenge we faced when designing the sports centre in the city centre was scale. Different sports functions require special heights differing significantly from those of residential or office buildings. We do not think that adopting the existing height of buildings at any cost provides the answer, rather commitment to the order of magnitude, as there are buildings of different scale already in the city centre here and there. Just think of the block-shaped transformer houses – often of excellent architectural quality – that are also determined by technological necessities. Continuing the previous line of reasoning, massing of the building was based on tectonic movement: two of the three determining masses appear to move in contrasting directions taking advantage of the irregular shape of the boundary. The rotating and inward movement of the mass also determined the starting point of the façade formation, and so the design was developed from the inside outwards.
Underground and at ground level we used the available area completely. Subsequently, the back-elevation plane was retracted so that this surface also became a usable façade. By adding an extra terrace level the building received vertical articulation: this area is accessible from the street, thus, providing not only Corvinus students with sports activities, but also offering urban residents an additional public space outdoors (street workout). The mass of the sports hall is located above this separating gap. This way a new identity was created by compact programming.
