Reasons for Designation
Sports Hall is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Its method of construction is rare internationally and it is now unique in this country.
* The permutation which the architect Michael Godwin worked on the basic form of the Binidome (or Parashell) by opening up and glazing its lower body created further constructional problems but these were overcome and it can be seen as a successful advance on the former pattern.
* It is an elegant design and aesthetically the building represents its period very well.
* Functionally it is also a thoroughly-considered design and continues to operate on a daily basis after almost thirty years.
* It is also remarkably intact with a great number of its original fixtures and fittings still in situ.
Details
This list entry was subject to a Minor Amendment on 11/04/2019
943/0/10050
MALVERN
AVENUE ROAD
Sports Hall (Formerly Edinburgh Sports Dome)
(Formerly listed as Edinburgh Sports Dome, IMPERIAL ROAD)
21-MAY-09
GV
II
The Sports Hall was built in 1977 for Malvern Girls College by Michael Godwin (architect) with John Faber of Oscar Faber as engineer and NorWest Holst Construction as advisers.
MATERIALS: Steel-reinforced concrete with a covering of copper-alloy sheeting, breeze block walling and polycarbonate windows. The dome is built of steel-reinforced concrete. The Bini Dome constructional method was followed: Firstly a concrete sill beam which marks the outer circumference of the dome is partially sunk into the ground. Then a grid of steel rods is laid onto the flat surface inside the ring beam's circumference on which a folded neoprene membrane has already been placed. Concrete, mixed with varying amounts of plasticizer and retardant, to ensure its continued malleability, is then poured on top and a further, outer membrane is stretched across the top of the wet concrete. Following this, the lower membrane is inflated through ducts under the ring beam to raise the dome (the process takes about an hour and a half). The membrane is kept inflated for another 60 hours while the concrete sets, after which it is deflated and a hole is cut through the concrete.
PLAN: The circular dome encompasses two squash courts and an entrance lobby with changing rooms and a first-aid room all clustered at the northern end. Above these is a balcony. The southern area has an un-interrupted area of floor space for games. The dome sits in an irregularly-shaped moat.
EXTERIOR: The roof was initially covered with a heat-insulating and waterproof membrane of Vermiculite covered with plastic, but this has now been replaced by copper-alloy sheeting. The eight openings at the base of the dome, to allow entrance and natural lighting, all have a projecting lip to their upper outer edges. The windows are of 6mm polycarbonate held in mullions of anodised aluminium and form a near-continuous band. The service rooms, whose walling shows to the northern openings, have walls of breeze blocks with horizontally-raked joints.
INTERIOR: The roof was sprayed with 12mm of white acoustic plaster and all other walls are painted white to match. The internal walling to the squash courts and other spaces is of concrete blocks which are exposed and have horizontally-raked joints, as elsewhere. The balcony front is of shuttered concrete which has twined rope inserted in the shuttering to form a sound-deadening pattern. Chromium-plated metal tubing is used for handrails and for the four masts, which rise from the balcony, and were designed to carry the original balcony lighting and sound equipment. Lighting for the main body of the hall is by large halide lights on the squash court roofs, which shine light upwards onto the white dome roof. All of these elements are still in situ, as are the furnishings for the first aid room and the men's changing room which has its original metal benches, coat hooks and ventilation grilles as well as lavatories. The squash courts also remain intact.
HISTORY: The Sports Hall was built in 1977 and opened on May 4th 1978 by the Duke of Edinburgh, designed to sit within a Conservation Area which already existed. Work started on site on 9th February 1977. The Bini dome had been invented and developed in Italy by Dr. Dante Bini after 1967. In all roughly five hundred domes were inflated in Italy and a further seven are known to have been raised in Australia in 1974. The rights to this form of construction in England were bought by NorWest Holst Construction. They renamed it "Parashell". Despite hopes that thirty or forty would be built each year only two Parashell domes were ever put up. The first was built in February 1975 at the Norwest Holst depot at Tingley in Yorkshire (demolished following sale of the site). This is the other. The economic climate in Britain at the time and the complexities of the constructional method seem to have proved too much for this revolutionary form of construction.
The architect Michael Godwin, had visited Italy in 1974 and seen several of Dante Bini's domes put to a variety of uses. In one he was struck by the reflection of light into the newly completed dome from the surface of a pool of water outside. He felt that the form of a dome was particularly suitable to the parabolic arch of a ball in flight and he went with a group from the school to view several examples in Italy. An informal committee was formed of girls, teachers and governors to discuss options with the architect. Two of the most emphatic suggestions to emerge were that the building should be lit by natural light and also that it should be capable of being used in the evenings and for a variety of social uses. The perimeter of windows at ground level and the balcony, used as social space, to the north side were the results.
SOURCES: New Civil Engineering, 20 February, 1975, pp 26-28; Concrete, April 1977, pp.18-21; Concrete, April 1978, pp.20-25 (and cover illustration).
REASONS FOR DESIGNATION DECISION: The Sports Hall is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Its method of construction is rare internationally and it is now unique in this country.
* The permutation which the architect Michael Godwin worked on the basic form of the Binidome (or Parashell) by opening up and glazing its lower body created further constructional problems but these were overcome and it can be seen as a successful advance on the former pattern.
* It is an elegant design and aesthetically the building represents its period very well.
* Functionally it is also a thoroughly-considered design and continues to operate on a daily basis after almost thirty years.
* It is also remarkably intact with a great number of its original fixtures and fittings still in situ.
* Its setting in an irregular-shaped moat and the immediate landscaping which includes lawned ramps.
