Our approach to the design of N10-Eiras Sports Facility Indoor Sports Facility was determined twofold: on the one hand by the specific characteristics of the existing industrial pavilion in which we ought to insert our solution. On the other hand by the brief, which asked for three main areas: reception; changing rooms and showers; and a party room.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
One volume was created, organizing the two main areas at both sides of the reception area, which is also where the entrance is located. The new volume thus created occupies the entire width of the existing pavilion, and its own width results from the subtraction of the football field from the pavilion’s total length. The building system defines the materialization of the volume.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
A porticoed frame made of American pine wood beams and columns creates the basic structure. The infill of this structure, both in the roof as in the walls, is made through the use of MDF boards, assembled in such a way as to perform both structural and formal roles in the overall construction. The raw use of the MDF boards is followed by a straightforward use of white ceramic tiles in the changing rooms and showers, and by the design of the furniture components, which are also made of raw pine wood elements and black lacquered MDF panels.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
The layout of the illumination devices was designed in order to accomplish an intense and expressive plasticity out of the volume’s formal and material characteristics. A tunnel-like element pierces the pavilion’s existing wall to announce in the outside the entrance to the facility.
Project Info
Architects: COMOCO
Country: Portugal, Coimbra
Area: 2385 m²
Year: 2012
Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Partners In Charge: Luís Miguel Correia, Nelson Mota, Susana Constantino
Construction Budget: € 200.000,00
Sophie Tremblay is a Montreal-based architectural editor and designer with a focus on sustainable urban development. A McGill University architecture graduate, she began her career in adaptive reuse, blending modern design with historical structures. As a Project Editor at Arch2O, she curates stories that connect traditional practice with forward-thinking design. Her writing highlights architecture's role in community engagement and social impact. Sophie has contributed to Canadian Architect and continues to collaborate with local studios on community-driven projects throughout Quebec, maintaining a hands-on approach that informs both her design sensibility and editorial perspective.