Reiach and Hall Architects

Aberdeen Sports Village

Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu

ABERDEEN SPORTS VILLAGE

Reiach And Hall Architects

ARCHITECTS
Reiach And Hall Architects

PROJECT MANAGER
Drivers Jonas Sport

COST CONSULTANT
Thomson Bethune

CONSULTANT ARCHITECT
KSS Design Group

STRUCTURAL ENGINEER
SKM Anthony Hunts

SERVICES ENGINEER
KJ Tait Engineers

LANDSCAPE ARCHITECT
Horner + Maclennan

SPORTS SURFACE SPECIALIST
PSD

PLANNING SUPERVISOR
Reiach and Hall

FIRE ENGINEER
Arup

ACOUSTIC CONSULTANT
Arup

PHOTOGRAPHS
Ioana Marinescu

AREA
17650.0 m2

LOCATION
Aberdeen, Aberdeen City, UK

CATEGORY
Sports Field

Text description provided by architect.

The new building at Aberdeen Sports Village is a civic building and the product of an enlightened community of client groups.

Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu
Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu

The joint funders of the project - the University of Aberdeen, SportScotland and Aberdeen City Council - worked together with Reiach and Hall during 2005-2007 to carefully define a brief that met their contrasting requirements.

The building was procured using a single stage design and build contract which lasted 22 months from contract award to building completion. The building opened to the public in August 2009.

Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu
Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu

The building is an accredited performance development centre for a wide variety of sports. It contains a dojo, a full size indoor football pitch, a 9-court multi-purpose games hall, an indoor athletics hall, 4 squash courts, a multi-purpose studio, a 100 station fitness suite, a 500 seat spectators stand, offices, a café, changing facilities, sports performance laboratories and an external artificial hockey pitch. The Village has been pre-selected as a training base for the 2012 Olympics. 

Sport is about commitment and discipline, but it is also about having fun. All good sportsmen should have discipline and technical ability, but the great sportsmen, the ones we remember affectionately, also have flair and personality, something special that sets them apart from the ordinary. 

Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu
Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu

The building in Aberdeen takes this thought as an inspiration. It is rigorously planned, but also contains many gestures and elements relating to sport and play.

For example, the formations of world cup winning football teams inspired the arrangement of the viewing windows to the football hall.

Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu
Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu

A large 104m long structural truss that holds up the floors of the fitness suite, dance studio and weight lifting area is a muscular gesture that represents strength, whilst the slender structural elements of the walls and roof aim to represent elegance and finesse.

Colours relating to sports clothing and equipment have been carefully incorporated into the design to enliven circulation spaces and help people to orientate themselves throughout the building.

Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu
Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu

In the sports centre in Aberdeen, we have tried to design a building containing inspiring spaces that will be more than just useful to Scottish communities for many generations to come.

We were delighted when Louise Martin CBE, chair of SportScotland, said: “The north-east now has a fantastic training and competition venue which I hope will inspire many more people to get active and provide the region’s talented athletes with the standard of facilities they need to develop to their full potential.”

Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu


Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu
Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu
Aberdeen Sports Village
© Ioana Marinescu


Aberdeen Sports Village
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Aberdeen Sports Village
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Aberdeen Sports Village
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Aberdeen Sports Village
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Aberdeen Sports Village
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Aberdeen Sports Village
Model
Aberdeen Sports Village
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Reiach and Hall Architects
T +44 131 2258444
Reiach and Hall Architects
8 Darnaway St, Edinburgh EH3 6BG, United Kingdom