Competition winning Design 

This community club with a vast expanse of Green is the primary institution within a central residential area offering its residents a place to enjoy a multitude of recreational, social, sports & leisure activities.

Located in one of the fastest developing urban areas of Pune City within a landscape of new constructions propping up all around, the prestigious Deccan Gymkhana club founded in 1906, acts as an important green lung of the city. It is a renowned sports club popular for sports like tennis, cricket, water polo, table tennis etc. at the national level. Many national and international sports events are organized by this club.

With this legacy in the hind sight, the club decided to build a badminton hall not only for its members, but also for hosting competitive tournaments on top of an existing building (indoor sports building) having an open terrace area of around 900 sq.m. This terrace was located at the highest point, which could be seen from all sides of the club and beyond, hence, the vision was to create a robust dynamic structure which not only symbolizes the dynamic nature of this fast paced sport, but also becomes an iconic identity of the club and for the surrounding area.

The project brief was to accommodate four badminton courts along with all the allied facilities like changing rooms, toilets, admin office, cafeteria and spectator’s arena to house around 300 spectators.

After analyzing the existing building and the available floor plate, the challenge was to maximize the functional floor plate to have spacious courts (as per Badminton World Federation standards) along with all other facilities. The dynamic parabolic form helped to maximize the floor plate and to accommodate the cantilevered spectator’s gallery. The proposed floor plate is around 1250 sq.m. The spectator’s gallery and the arena situated at the upper level comprises of  420  sq.m. Total construction b/up area is 17975 sq.ft.  The playing arena and the spectator’s arena are purposely separated by levels, so as to avoid entry of non marking shoes on the wooden courts. The existing r.c.c structure required strengthening of some existing columns and addition of few new columns on the periphery to take the load of the roof structure.

K E Y H I G H L I G H T S

1) Parabolic form :- The outer parabolic shell comprises of sandwiched sheets, having standing seam roofing sheets on the outside and 80 mm thk. rock wool for thermal insulation in the middle layer. The lining or backing sheet forms the inner layer.

The east and west side are also thermally insulated with 75 mm thk precoated puff wall panels which  further helps in reduction in heat ingress and maintains the indoor temperatures lower by 4 to 5 degrees than the outside temperature.

2) Natural ventilation :- The proposed courts are naturally ventilated by making use of stack effect, which can be further enhanced by silent exhaust fans provided at the top ventilator level.

  Natural ventilation calculations are as below- :-

    • Total hall volume – 395666 Ft3

• Considering 30 air changes perrequired & average natural wind velocity 565 Ft/min

• Opening of 350 sq.ft have been designed at suitable locations to enhance the stack effect.

The openings are oriented in a way to maintian the air velocity on the playing area at 0.2 m/s, which doesn’t affect the shuttle movement while playing.

3) Indoor Lighting :- Badminton hall necessarily needs artificial lighting. The LED lighting options are designed to have around 400 LX for regular playing and around 1000 LX for competitive tournaments. This helps in reducing the energy consumption substantially.

4) Color Palette :- The exterior color of the existing building is purposely kept green, so as to blend itself with the surrounding greenery. The parabolic shell is of earthen shade to have lesser reflectivity as it forms a backdrop for other sports. The colors for the indoor hall follow the same color palette, darker shades to spot the white shuttle prominently.

5) Solar P.V panels :- The flattened curve of the parabola is designed to be able to fit around 280 no:s of Solar P.V panels which can generate total electricity of around 19052 KWH, which can take care of the electrical requirements of all the club activities, thus reducing it’s dependency on artificial energy sources.

6) Construction Process:- The whole construction process was meticulously planned and  carried out while the activities like gymnasium and table tennis on the lower floors operational simultaneously.