A State-of-the-art Sports Pavilion - Part 1/3

16 January 2017

Let’s see different points of view on the project sports pavilion. Let’s start with Duncan Murray, Builder Directline Structures.

This state-of-the-art sports pavilion designed and built by Ashford specialists Directline Structures has been hailed by the President of the Football Foundation as “architecturally the most impressive” that he has ever opened.

Lord Pendry praised the award-winning company’s latest project as he officially launched the sports building, in Langton Green, Kent, on behalf of the UK’s biggest sports charity, alongside World Cup winning footballer George Cohen.

Now the impressive building has won its first award, with Directline Structures beating construction specialists from across Europe to take the Astron Small and Smart Award 2016. For this state-of-the-art sports pavilion designed and built by UK Builder Directline Structures.

The pavilion was the concept of Directline Structures’ Managing Director, Duncan Murray, and architect Katy Barker. Duncan and Katy worked in close collaboration with the Langton Green Community Sports Association (LGCSA) throughout the eight-month project to provide a bespoke pavilion that not only met their needs but exceeded the Football Foundation’s stringent requirements – all within the £460,000 budget.

When the LGCSA first approached Directline Structures, planning permission had already been granted for the remodeling and extension of the existing, aging pavilion. Thanks to the company’s one-stop design-and-build approach, however, it was able to offer a new, high-quality pavilion for the same cost as a refurbished one.

Duncan Murray said: “They were sceptical at first and nervous about re-submitting their planning application as they thought they might lose the £384,000 funding they’d been granted by the Premier League and FA Facilities Fund. “We were able to show them and the FA how the scheme we were proposing fundamentally offered the same provisions but in a much more efficient and attractive building that was totally designed for purpose.”

Duncan and Katy prepared 3D visuals to show how the scheme would work, and involved LGCSA in decisions on the building’s appearance from the outset.

Directline Structures had to overcome a number of hurdles to bring the project to fruition. Duncan said: “When we dug the foundations we realised that the reason the pitches were so wet was because nothing was draining away. So we took all the rainwater from soak away across the pitches to an existing channel to avoid making them any wetter.

“We had to work through an extremely soggy winter which made the site very muddy. We also encountered a lot of rock which meant we had to adapt the design as the construction progressed. Because we managed the entire project in-house, from concept to completion, we were aware of the challenges at an early stage and were able to tackle the problem without delaying the project.”

Back

Configure your building!

Design your building on your own. Explore the numerous possibilities and compare different options according to your needs.

Learn more