Type
sport

Source
open international competition

Client
City of Koper

Address/Site
Sports Park Bonifika, Koper, Slovenia

Site area
24.559 m2

Building area
11.768 m2

Total floor area
25.015 m2

Program
multi- purpose sports hall

Structure
primary roof trusses , precast concrete planks, concrete frame

Cladding
glass

Architect
SADAR+VUGA (Jurij Sadar, Boštjan Vuga, Mirjam Milic, Milena Zindović, Victor Barbalato, Jure Hrovat, Ognen Arsov, Andreas Cesarini, Jurij Ličen, Nina Vuga)

The new Multi-purpose sportshall in Koper is a sportshall on the Meditteranean, in the immediate proximity of the sea coast. It is situated in Bonifika, a sports and recreation area located between the old town of Koper and the new developments of Semedela. The Meditterenean surrounding dictates an open appearance of the hall, where the inside and outside space intertwine. Thus the hall becomes a public space that links the sea coast and future marina with the recreational park Bonifika.

The facade is an infrastructural wrap that incorporates the paths and roads of the site and lifts them up all the way to a vista-point on the “captain’s bridge” on the height of the surrounding buildings. The public wrap with its white rings and pulled-back glass enclosure visually shrinks and decomposes the large volume of the hall in it’s surrounding. The regularity of the planned grid of trees on the rest of the site enhances the hall’s appearence.

The surroundings of the hall are the future open olympic pool, the closed pool and sports and recreational fields of Bonifika. But the hall is the only space in this complex where the public is lifted above ground, taken to the height of the surrounding builidings and offered an amazing view of the sea, the old town and the buildings of Semedela.

The hall becomes a landmark in the urban space of Koper, noticable both from the highway and the sea, during the day as well as in the night. From the sea it appears as a big infrastructural terminal that lights its surrounding and shows its inside. On its public wrap of intertwining rings there is movement of visitors, athletes and locals, that all come to view the old town of Koper, the events in Bonifika, Semedela and the open sea.