A SPORTS HALL HAS BEEN EXTENDED TO BECOME A SPORTS AND CONVENTION CENTER DESIGNED BY THE ARCHITECT MAX DUDLER. THE HALL WAS FIRST USED AS A VENUE FOR A GRADUATION CEREMONY ON 8 JUNE 2012.
Jacobs University is a private, state-recognised university with an international outlook, located in Grohn, a district of Bremen. To satisfy growing student numbers and the increasing emphasis being placed on university sports, Jacobs University decided to convert its pre-existing campus sport facilities into a multi-usage building. The contract for the work was awarded to the architect Max Dudler in January 2011.
The Sports and Convention Center stands on its own within the university’s park-like campus. Due to its setting and its plain, striking architecture, the building forms the new focal point of the complex. At the center of the new building is the large hall, surrounded by a ring of functional rooms. The layout somewhat resembles the ring hall and cella of an ancient temple. This impression is further conveyed by the exterior, with its bold colonnade of clinker brickwork as well as the hall roof’s raised central section. A filigree pillar configuration divides the building’s brickwork facade into a series of enclosed sections. In contrast to the heavy brickwork, generously-sized frameless glass windows open up the building on all sides. Light domes ensure that the stands for spectators on the upper floor receive a copious amount of daylight.
To enhance the new building’s significance for the university, its architectural style is typologically orientated towards important classical buildings such as Berlin’s Altes Museum by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, as well as classical modern buildings such as the Crown Hall at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) in Chicago, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The facade of the new building, with its affirmation of North German Brickwork Expressionism, also takes into consideration Bremen and the architecture of the other buildings on the American-inspired campus.
The building’s central hall can be used in many ways as either a single-, dual- or quadruple-use sports hall for nearly all types of indoor sports at a national league level. Furthermore, it can be re-arranged to host official events and conferences accommodating up to 1500 people. Grouped around the central hall are further areas of the building: a training tank with eight-man rowing equipment, a fitness center, a tea kitchen as well as various recreation areas, storage rooms for sports equipment and a large foyer. Changing rooms, shower and sanitary facilities round off the convention center’s infrastructure.
