In La Unión, in Spain’s Region of Murcia, the municipal sports centre is known locally as El Poli. One of the town’s main meeting places, it brings together sport, leisure, and everyday social life for people of all ages.
Driven by a clear objective, the intervention sought to give a new identity to an established local landmark through targeted architectural changes within a modest budget.
The project comprises two complementary interventions: El Poli and La Pérgola. El Poli renews the entrance building through a new envelope and improved thermal performance, while La Pérgola transforms photovoltaic infrastructure into an architectural element that generates renewable energy and shades the existing football stands.
El Poli
The intervention on the entrance building combines an energy retrofit with a reconsideration of its role within the town. The building’s low, elongated form, positioned between the urban fabric and the sports complex, allows it to operate simultaneously as an urban edge, a facade, and a gateway. Its form contrasts with the mining chimneys and industrial structures that characterise La Unión’s landscape, creating a recognisable linear edge along the public realm.
A continuous new envelope unifies the building’s different programmes, including changing rooms, toilets, offices, and the cafeteria.
The new ventilated ceramic facade is composed of vertically ribbed glazed tiles in a vivid lime-green finish, contrasting with the ochre tones of the surrounding mining landscape. Its ribbed, glossy surface changes in appearance with daylight, while openings provide access to interiors finished in a contrasting monochromatic palette.
Beyond its architectural role, the new envelope improves the thermal performance of the existing building. The ventilated facade reduces heat transfer through the wall assembly, while upgraded roof insulation reduces the roof’s thermal transmittance to approximately half its original value. Together, these measures lower heat transfer through the envelope and reduce energy demand.
The entrance is designed as a generous threshold between the town and the sports complex, with a fully foldable metal facade that can open the building directly to the public realm. When fully opened, the space can accommodate both everyday use and larger public events.
The building’s horizontal form is interrupted by a vertical element rising above the roofline and carrying the name EL POLI. Visible from the surrounding streets, the sign reinforces the identity by which the sports centre is already known locally.
The facade also incorporates a construction strategy intended to support long-term adaptability and material recovery. The ventilated ceramic system is prefabricated, dry-assembled, and reversible, allowing components to be dismantled, replaced, reused, or recycled at the end of their service life. According to the project team, the ceramic was sourced locally, helping limit transport requirements while supporting regional production and craftsmanship.
La Pérgola
The second intervention transforms energy infrastructure into an architectural element. The requirements for solar-energy generation inform its geometry, while the resulting canopy provides shade for the existing football stands.
The canopy begins with a rectangular footprint corresponding to the area requiring shade. The south-facing orientation and inclination of the photovoltaic panels, determined in response to La Unión’s latitude, generate a sequence of folded planes and a sawtooth profile.
Constructed with a three-dimensional steel structure and clad in blue metal sheeting, the pergola changes in appearance with varying light conditions, creating a visual relationship with the ceramic facade of the entrance building.
The result is a functional architectural piece and new visual landmark.
The photovoltaic system is estimated to generate 9,450 kWh annually, allowing the canopy to generate renewable electricity while shading the existing stands.
The pergola follows the same principles of reversibility as the facade. It is conceived as a fully demountable system assembled through dry connections, allowing its components to be disassembled, reused, or recycled.
The approach supports future maintenance, replacement, and material recovery while combining renewable-energy generation with a demountable construction system.
