The current location of Elva Sports Centre is logical for a number of reasons: not only is it close to the town’s stadium, but it also serves Elva Gymnasium, whose younger students lacked a space of their own within the school to do sports.
In an architectural sense, the location of the building is ‘complicated’ (in a good way) because the architect was determined to preserve the beautiful views around Lake Arbi. As such, the building has been provided with reflective glass surfaces as well as reflective ‘sandwich’ wall panels. The latter ensures that a person moving around the outside of the building and looking towards it will see their own reflection and what is behind them, whether that be pine or beech trees or the yellow school building. Since the typical four-sided shape of a sports centre would have been too ‘straightforward’ and indeed out of place in the given location, the upper part of the building’s facades was covered in a wavy fabric whose motif is the famous Elva pine..
What makes the shape of the building even more special is that a 60-metre running track passes through it, connecting it to the school building at one end and extending out as a glass gallery at the other. Designing this gallery was a complex task, since it posed the question: How can such a structure preserve the notion of ‘less is more’? The designer was very happy that the engineers came up with such an elegant solution: their architectural idea is now adorned with a structural concrete post in a V-shape and a glass gallery with a large span.
The centre’s wavy motif partly extends into the building itself, with the foyer and main counter featuring a suspended timber ceiling in a wavy pattern.
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Photos: Tõnu Tunnel
