Portuguese architecture practice Summary has completed a training facility for the Aveiro Municipal Stadium in Portugal, highlighting circulation and public areas in yellow color to create a contrast to concrete building.

Named Grandstand Building - Training Complex of the Municipal Stadium In Aveiro, the 1,500-square-metre project is located in the immediate surroundings of Aveiro Municipal Stadium as a supporting structure for football practice and official games for the younger teams.

Summary's project is comprised of four football pitches, a supporting facility with locker rooms, public stands, parking facilities and complementary amenities.

In the project, yellow color acts as a robust element that guides visitors to common areas and circulation, with protruding concrete walls. 

The studio implements all functions into a single building, while the public stands facing the playing pitches to each side and the remaining programmatic functions housed underneath. 

To optimize public circulations and reduce building material, building costs and construction time, the studio brings together all functions and the two public grandstands in a single unit.

According to the studio, "the general image of the building and its constructive system are strongly intertwined." 

The studio specficially chose concrete with its natural colour, since it was based on an aesthetic decision as well as a cost-effective one, avoiding the need for additional finishings.

"Colour is used sparingly but intentionally to create a strong effect in the circulation areas and to symbolically identify all public access areas," said Summary.

"The simplicity of the design and the sobriety of its apparent materials aim for a more reduced presence of the building in the surroundings, offering a certain neutrality to the general intervention and not compete with the stronger presence of the Stadium nearby."

"Under the pretext of having a building to house the technical functions that support the sportive activity we introduced a social layer on top of the building, by placing the public stand that faces both pitches on opposite sides," the studio added.

The studio distirbutes all functions and makes configurations so that it can generate "a series of situations where public life can unfold and a sense of community can be more strongly felt." 

The same yellow colour also marks a bar placement near to the entrance and the signalization of all public elements, alongside common areas devoted to the general public.

As in previous similar projects of the studio, like Paradinha 11 Cabins In The Woods and modular housing VLC, the construction of this building follows the same principle and is made of precast concrete elements. 

"The monitoring of the quality level of the components while in factory allows for a more efficient building process," as the studio emphasized.

The studio believes that this process is much more time-saving, which becomes a determinant factor when erecting a public building.

The studio also integrated other sustainable solutions to the project for energy-efficiency, such as employing bioclimatic resources like openings that potentiate cross-ventilation, the use of active means like solar panels. 

According to the firm, these additional elements will contribute to a substantial reduction of the building’s operating costs, relevant in the long term for a building of public use.

Axonometric drawing

Ground floor plan

First floor plan

Cross section

Longitudinal section

Perspective drawing 

Based in the Science and Technology Park of University of Porto, Summary is young design team led by Samuel Gonçalves. 

Aiming to create standard, pragmatic and experimental solutions to accelerate architecture, based on this approach, Summary has developed different modular solutions, in direct partnership with companies linked to prefabrication, aiming to optimize construction processes, construction time and physical resources.

The firm developed Gomos Building System, a construction method based on the idea of the construction systems of the ordinary sewer pipes. 

Project facts

Project name: Grandstand Building - Training Complex of the Municipal Stadium In Aveiro

Architects: Summary

Location: Aveiro, Portugal

Completion Year: 2022

Gross Built Area: 1500 m2 / sqm

Leading Architect: Samuel Gonçalves

Architecture Team: Adina Staicu, Inês Vieira Rodrigues, João Meira, Sara Perfetti.

All images © Fernando Guerra I FG+SG.

All drawings © Summary.

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