JPAM

Over the years, the area of ​​the outdoor courts of the Pallejà sports complex was shaped in a fragmented way to accommodate, gradually, a program of increasing functional needs. Perhaps this reason, due to a lack of global vision, denied the whole more character, coherence and clarity.
As in a panel, the project reconfigures the relationships between the different elements and gives more unity and continuity to the spaces for specialized use, together with those that are more generic and interstitial, from which the activity is observed, and that they represent the true connecting elements of the whole. The use or absence of color evidences these relationships.
Without altering the continuity of this space, nor its open condition, the cover of the multi-sports court, which occupies a position surrounded by movement, provides a place of refuge, with a double perception.
From the outside, the skin appears airtight. The gaze only penetrates where there is no envelope, and concentrates attention on the ground plane. Once inside, under cover, this hermetic envelope becomes a curtain that sifts the urban environment, and blurs this reality to establish a direct visual relationship with the sports activity, in the foreground, and with the landscape, on the horizon . At night, the cover is stripped. The interior light is a claim, at the same time that the interior is perceived from the city, it is explained outwards and lightened.
This effect is achieved with a mantle of perforated sheet metal that wraps the structure on three of its faces, while the relationship between the low profile of the skirts of the envelope and the level of the floor solves the transition from the staircase from the landscape to the human scale. The corner that marks the entrance and gives continuity to the main facade is solved in translucent polycarbonate, which provides nuances under the eaves that protects it; a cut-out flyover, which integrates the outdoor environment as part of the roof, activity and landscape, under its threshold function.
The metallic materiality of the roof, linked with the industrial language of the territory, is treated from the expressive austerity and chromatic simplicity, which contribute to perceiving it as an abstract element without reference to scale. The explicit metal structure draws attention to the protagonist lightness of the movement that envelops it and protects it. The concrete screens on which the side facades are supported make it possible to avoid pillars in the corners and free them up, while, due to material contrast, the structure seems to rest on top of them without effort; almost floats
The geometric variations of the roof on an apparently symmetrical and regular reading of the volume offer a changing perception, according to its contextual relationship with the urban environment as one approaches it and dynamically recognizes it from its perimeter The roof minimizes the visual impact on the street to which it exposes the lower height, and on the contrary, achieves maximum expression, making its presence and scale noticeable, towards the open front facing the landscape, as a neutral element on the metropolitan systems and the entrance to the municipality.
Now, this equipment initially conceived from the functional response offers a reading with more presence, consistent with its strategic position at the entrance of the municipality, and becomes a place of expression of collective values, a rediscovered element and recognized by the public.
Now, it's identity.