DECCAN GYMKHANA BADMINTON HALL

Located in one of the most fastest developing urban areas of Pune City, Deccan Gymkhana club founded in 1906, acts as an important green lung of the city. It is a renouned sports club popular for sports like Tennis, Cricket, Water polo , Table tennis etc. at the national level. Many national and international tennis tournaments are organised by this club.

With this legacy in the hind sight, the club decided to build a badminton hall not only for the members, but also for hosting competitive tournaments on top of an existing building having a terrace area of 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 symbolises the dynamic nature of this fast paced sport, but also becomes an iconic identity of the club and 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 analysing the existing building and the available floor plate, the challenge was to maximise the functional floor plate to have spacious courts (as per Badminton World Federation standards) along with other facilities. The dynamic parabolic form helped to maximise the floor plate and to accommodate the cantilevered spectator’s gallery. The proposed floor plate is 1211 sq.m. The spectator’s gallery and the arena situated at the upper level  comprises of  416  sq.m.

 K E Y H I G H L I G H T S

1) Parabolic form :- The outer parabolic shell comprises of sandwiched panels, 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. This insulation helps in reduction of heat ingress and maintains the indoor temperature lower by 3 to 4 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 required & average natural wind velocity 565 Ft/min

 • Opening of 350 sq.ft have been designed.

 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) Colour 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 colour palette, darker shades to spot the white shuttle prominantly.

 5) Construction Process:- The whole construction process was meticulously planned and  carried out without disturbing the activities like Gymnasium and table tennis on the lower floors.