Wellington ASB Sports Centre - Sport

Client:          Wellington City Council

Project Brief

In late August, the Wellington ASB Sports Centre had its official opening. The project had been many years in the planning and over the last 20 months Mainzeal has been constructing the large ovoid building.
It was one of those building projects that get contractors really excited. It was located on a large greenfield site with access around the entire perimeter, the structure was big and bold and was assembled like a giant Meccano set. Wide open spaces meant lots of room for large plant and equipment, and many elements of the building’s design were technically advanced so there were new methodologies to plan and new challenges to overcome.
The Wellington ASB Sports Centre courts measure 10,500 m2, providing the public with quality playing and training facilities for a variety of indoor sports. Wellington schools will have access to the sports centre for a range of sports development and physical activity programmes. The sports centre will also be a great destination for regional and national sports tournaments.
The main floor of the sport centre is divided into Sports Hall East and Sports Hall West and the spine down the centre houses amenities and sports control. Each hall contains six netball courts, the eastern hall has six basketball courts, and there is room for eighteen volleyball courts overall. There is a café near the entry and at the north end of the building is space that is available for sporting codes and sport related services. Below the centre on the western half is an underground car park.
The timber sports floor is a Junckers Beech Unobat62 system imported from Denmark. The boards came pre-finished and the floor installation took fourteen weeks, using a team of up to seventeen men. Once installed the floor was line marked for all the different disciplines and then the floor had a final coat of polyurethane to protect the line markings and provide a uniform finish. One of the challenges of the project was to have the concrete slab ready for the sports floor. The timber sports floor could accommodate very little tolerance, however it was being laid on a large concrete slab with all the vagaries that go with concrete as a medium. The Mainzeal team solved the problem by undertaking a full survey of the floor prior to installation and isolating areas which needed to be brought back within tolerance. This was achieved by grinding and localised packing.
The building is naturally ventilated which is uncommon for such a large sports centre. In between the concrete panels that march around the exterior are full height glass louvres which are computer controlled. Two weather stations mounted around the site and multiple sensors within the building feed information back to the computer so it can determine which louvres should be open. There are also louvres in the roof trough to allow heat that rises to escape without the aid of fans.
Natural light also plays a big role. There are skylights over each of the trusses and sensors control the fluorescent lighting to only come on gradually when the natural illumination is not sufficient on its own.
The construction of the ASB Sports Centre included two noteworthy New Zealand firsts. It is the first project to use steel elliptical tapered columns and it is the first project to use a Kalzip roof.
Supporting the bow trusses are 64 tapered elliptical columns. Stock elliptical sections were sourced from the UK and these were split lengthwise and tapered plates added.
The Kalzip roof is made from aluminium sheet which was formed on site. It was selected for its strength, durability and ability to accommodate the double curve of the roof as well as providing a whole-of-life cost benefit to the project.
The Sports Centre had its first tournament in early September which was run by Basketball New Zealand. It was then used as an indoor training centre for rugby teams based in Wellington during the Rugby World Cup.
Mainzeal looks forward to seeing the Sports Centre being used to capacity by the community and local schools.