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Country: UK, Location: London, UK, Project Type: Government Training Centre, Client: Malaysian Sports Council, Architect: Small Architecture Ltd, Value: £3.4M, Year: 2007
Consultants: White Young Green, Project Manager, C&S Engineers, Building Services, Acoustic, Environmental, Traffic and Planning Services, Edmond Shipway (QS), Allen Pyke Associates (Landscape), Cobrain Holdings Sdn. Bhd. (Turnkey Developer)
The Malaysian Government approached us to produce a design for the National Sports Council to create their first international away base for athletic development. The 18 hectare site owned by the Malaysian Rubber Board, is within the metropolitan green belt. The design and subsequent planning application was developed with national sports representatives and developed in discussions with the local planning authority.
The site selected by the client has a number of mature trees and strategic views within the estates formal landscape that the architecture had to respond to.
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The basis for the site layout was built around the historical precedent of former buildings within that area and arranging facilities around a sunken courtyard for external activity to minimising the impact on surrounding gardens.
The design aims to be contextual without relying on pastiche. It borrows features, material qualities, layout configurations, scale and pattern related proportion from the surrounding buildings without directly duplicating them. It endeavours to be engaging without becoming alienating, considerate of its impact both when viewed from a distance as well as when perceived up close.
Using materials such as brick, lead and glass, composed into a number of congruent configurations, the building forms a benign backdrop to its surroundings.
The creation of a sustainable design for residents has been fundamental to the design process. The approach has been to not only create a building that organically responds to its surrounding, but which also reduce the amount of energy consumed. Landscaping onto the building provides a natural buffer and passive solution to energy efficiency.
The project has currently been suspended due to political cutbacks.
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