Sports Palace

This extremely original project, drawn up by the Julián Franco Arquitectos studio, was completed in 2003. Also outstanding was the high technology applied to its complex and unique construction and modern facilities; the incorporation of daring, yet successfully implemented, solutions, in aesthetic terms; the high price involved; and its significant contribution to Architectural Culture.

Opposite the Sardinero municipal football stadium, in the city of Santander, the building has a constructed surface area of 15,500 m², gathered in a single unit. The curved roof, made of large stainless steel plates, provides a global and all-encompassing image, despite the two different activities that are accommodated inside.

In order to soften the huge visual impact of the Palacio de Deportes, it was placed on depressed land, thus seeming to organically emerge from the earth, from the back, where a high earth embankment was placed, to the main entrance at the front. Thus, the visual aspects of the building are enriched: it is viewed in many different manners from its perimeter, from the various heights available, and is always outstanding and attractive.

Access to the building is provided through 7 sets of doors located in the glass curtain wall, on which the huge curved structure seems to rest. From the vestibule, many staircases are bored into the curved roof, the inside continuation of the façade, in order to give the room its huge space and seating levels. The room may be viewed in full from any point and its acoustics are of the highest quality, as there is no room for any detrimental reverberation. A very bright shaft of light filters through the top skylight, along strong aluminium slats that regulate the flow of sunlight. There are both fixed and mobile seating levels, with a total capacity for 6,002 seated persons, surrounding the multipurpose circular stage, 57 m. wide.

The Municipal Sports Club was designed to operate separately from the Palace, as the other basic component of the architectural unit. It accommodates ordinary and daily activities, such as administration offices, maintenance workshops, entertainment areas and sales, and is accessed through the area facing the public entrance. Amongst other facilities, the area has a large hall, ticket offices, office space, toilets, lifts, a press room with seating for 40 and, below, changing rooms for teams, referees and artists, players' toilets, storerooms, a gym and a warm-up court, allowing access for visitors with disabilities through ramps and lifts.

This extremely unique building is still one of its kind in Spain, in terms of design, many of its finishings and some of the construction processes used were applied for the first time in this project.