The Valencia Basket Foundation aims to promote and encourage the practice of sports in general, and basketball in particular. Valencia Basket is the team of the city par excellence and, in its school, elite players are formed to raise the level of this sport in future teams.
L’Alqueria del Basket emerges due to the growing number of young players who are part of the club and the need to create a unique space to house them all. Currently, more than 500 children train in different parts of the city. Therefore, it was necessary to create a “house”, a big complex where all of them could train in the best conditions possible.
We were concerned about good lighting, we wanted it to be homogeneous and without glares. Therefore, in the first volume, we designed large skylights over the main court. In the second one, due to its larger dimension, we pursued the same effect through isolated skylights and a polycarbonate skin.
In addition, in the central spine we created 6 patios that provide natural light and good ventilation to the spaces contained in it.
It was essential for us to design a clear circulation inside the building so the users could move without problems. We divided it into two: the young players and the relatives. The ground floor is designed for the first group and the upper floor for the second one. The ascencion to this upper level takes places through a orange ramp, the color of the team. With this division we help children to concentrate on the game and family members to enjoy it.
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Our aim was to design a basketball complex reference for both national and international level. L’Alqueria is located on the plot annexed to the pavilion of La Fuente de San Luis, the current arena of the Club and has an area of circa 15,000m2. The program is divided into two volumes and contains a total of 13 courts; where 9 of them are indoors and 4 outdoors.
The first volume houses the main court, where league games and of training sessions take place.
The second one houses 8 courts for training that can be used simultaneously thanks to large automatized curtains that separate one court from another. The courts are distributed around a central axis, divided into two levels. The lower level houses the services nucleus formed by independent changing rooms for each court, gymnasium, nursing, physiotherapist and technical services. And the upper level, which is dedicated to learning and has spaces for family members who want to enjoy the training.
