Sports Hall (formerly Edinburgh Sports Dome)

Sports Hall (formerly Edinburgh Sports Dome)

This sports hall was built in 1977 for Malvern Girls College and opened on 4 May 1978 by the Duke of Edinburgh. The architect was Michael Godwin, with John Faber of Oscar Faber as engineer and NorWest Holst Construction as advisers. Construction began on site on 9 February 1977.

The building is a circular dome constructed using the Bini Dome method, a revolutionary technique invented and developed in Italy by Dr. Dante Bini after 1967. The construction process involved laying a concrete sill beam partially sunk into the ground to mark the outer circumference, then positioning a grid of steel rods on the flat surface within the ring beam. A folded neoprene membrane was placed over this grid, followed by steel-reinforced concrete mixed with varying amounts of plasticizer and retardant to maintain malleability. A second outer membrane was stretched across the wet concrete, then the lower membrane was inflated through ducts beneath the ring beam to raise the dome in approximately one and a half hours. The membrane remained inflated for a further 60 hours while the concrete set, after which it was deflated and a hole cut through the concrete.

The dome is constructed of steel-reinforced concrete and sits within an irregularly-shaped moat. The roof was initially covered with a heat-insulating and waterproof membrane of Vermiculite covered with plastic, since replaced by copper-alloy sheeting. The lower exterior has eight openings for entrance and natural lighting, each with a projecting lip to its upper outer edge. The windows are 6mm polycarbonate held in anodised aluminium mullions, forming a near-continuous band. Service rooms at the northern openings have breeze block walling with horizontally-raked joints.

Internally, the circular dome encloses two squash courts and an entrance lobby with changing rooms and a first-aid room clustered at the northern end, with a balcony above these spaces. The southern area provides uninterrupted floor space for games. The roof is sprayed with 12mm of white acoustic plaster, and all other walls are painted white. The internal walling to the squash courts and other spaces is of exposed concrete blocks with horizontally-raked joints. The balcony front is shuttered concrete with twined rope inserted in the shuttering to form a sound-deadening pattern. Chromium-plated metal tubing is used for handrails and for four masts rising from the balcony, originally designed to carry lighting and sound equipment. Large halide lights on the squash court roofs shine upwards onto the white dome roof to illuminate the main body of the hall. The squash courts, first-aid room furnishings, and men's changing room with original metal benches, coat hooks, ventilation grilles and lavatories all remain intact.

The Bini dome construction method was licensed for use in England by NorWest Holst Construction under the name "Parashell". Despite initial hopes that thirty or forty domes would be built annually, only two Parashell domes were ever constructed: the first in February 1975 at the NorWest Holst depot at Tingley in Yorkshire (later demolished following sale of the site), and this building. Economic conditions in Britain and the complexities of the constructional method prevented wider adoption of this revolutionary construction form.

Architect Michael Godwin had visited Italy in 1974 and seen several of Dante Bini's domes in various uses. He felt the dome form was particularly suitable to the parabolic arch of a ball in flight and led a group from the school to view Italian examples. An informal committee of girls, teachers and governors was formed to discuss options. Key suggestions that emerged were that the building should be naturally lit and capable of evening use and social functions. The perimeter windows at ground level and the balcony used as social space to the north side resulted from these requirements.