Blacktown Disability Sports Centre
CLIENT: Blacktown City council
Country: Dharug nation
location: Blacktown, nsw
PROJECT SHEET: DOWNLOAD
Blacktown Disability Sports Centre is a new multipurpose indoor training facility for athletes with disability. The project is for Blacktown City Council, funded by the NSW Government, and will be built within Blacktown International Sportspark in Western Sydney’s Rooty Hill. The primary stakeholders are several current Paralympic sports including Badminton, Boccia, Fencing, Goalball, Judo, Taekwondo and Volleyball.
Key to the project is understanding and accommodating the specific requirements of each athlete, each team and each sport, while allowing for flexibility of use. Care has been taken to provide facilities that are functional for all. Generous circulation spaces are provided, and rooms and areas that have regular use are accessed with automatic opening doors. Changerooms and toilet facilities numbers are weighted towards accessible use, with accessible and Changing Places facilities well above what is required by the building code.
Inclusivity also factors into connections to the wider Sportspark facilities. The indoor training facility is situated next to the existing athletics track and stadium, so the whole project is considered as a sports precinct, with new purposeful connections to all facilities. A new generous external covered forecourt forms this connection, linking the sports hall, stadium and amenities, with views and access into the activities of the buildings, and connection to existing woodland and newly landscaped areas.
The covered way is the principle organising device for the project, a linear ‘street’ from which all new and current Sportspark program is accessed from. The proposed new building forms of the Multi-sports Hall and Lobby/Amenities are conceived as separate building forms on either side of the ‘street’, allowing for different uses and occupation at different times of the day. The split forms allow the full court area and activities of the Sports Hall to be viewed on approach, and northern winter sun and outlook to be accessed by the Lobby/Amenities wing.
