New images unveiled of new-look Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre
A major sports project designed by Lincolnshire architects LK2 has been granted planning permission.
The LK2 design for the redeveloped Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre delivers a demand-led solution for Southampton's sport, health, and well-being provision, significantly enhancing the current offer to provide a sustainable and multi-faceted facility, with projected monetarised benefits of £98.8 million.
The never-before-seen 3D images released today by LK2 capture a master plan of improvements for the 'green lung' of the city. Improvements welcomed by 97% of people through public consultation. The transformations will provide inclusive access to sport and dramatically increases opportunities for communities across Southampton to increase their level of physical activity within a multi-sport community hub.
The designs released today showcase a palette of contextual and contemporary natural materials, a bespoke architectural response that creates a positive focus within the natural landscape and reflects the project's commitment to ecology.
The unique design embodies wide-ranging improvements for high-participation sports whilst maintaining the connectivity of minority sports. Football, tennis, cricket, cycling, netball, and hockey will see improvements in the provision, including the addition of three new artificial grass football pitches and a new sports hall with indoor tennis and netball courts.
Further improvements include a regenerated alpine Snowsports centre with a new ski lodge and extensions to the ski slopes, new athletics grandstand, clubhouse and changing facilities, car parking and cycle park. The former boating lake will be transformed into a family zone providing open space access to an outdoor gym, ‘learn to ride’ cycling, skatepark, and children's play.
The catalyst behind this transformational project is LK2, a unique company specialising in architectural, sport, leisure, and local authority project development. It was LK2's skillset that successfully unlocked the potential for large-scale sport and leisure regeneration in Southampton.
The project inception first surfaced in 2013 when the Football Association requested LK2 review the football provision as a key member of the framework for a project valued at £12m. Years of engagement, investment and planning ensued with multiple stakeholders and National Governing Bodies, resulting in a significant self-sustaining project now valued at £24m.
Throughout five years, the project leads captured comprehensive strategic need sourced funding and brought together the support of multiple partners to design a high-quality future-proofed, and commercially savvy solution. A solution that is set to welcome over 260k visits per annum, stimulating significant social and economic benefits for the local and regional Solent community.
Physical activity contributes £39 billion to the UK's economy, a significant portion of which comes from grassroots sport. The redeveloped community sports centre, therefore, will not only improve community sports provision but also create job opportunities and indirectly reduce costs to the NHS by facilitating a healthier, more physically active nation.
Fuelling project growth was LK2's commercial mindset that ensured the political and planning leverage of numerous National Governing Bodies. Sport England, the Football Association, Football Foundation, Lawn Tennis Association, England Athletics, Snowsport England, England Netball, British Cycling, England and Wales Cricket Club, Skateboard GB and England Hockey all pledged their strategic support to the project, ensuring the 84-acre site is set to become the blueprint for grassroots sports provision.
Glenn Swann, Director at LK2 Architects said:
“Over the years LK2 Architects have been pivotal in the delivery of mixed-use retail, commercial and leisure facilities as destinations to provide more whole life engagement across the country. We have brought forward several bench marking schemes over the years, but the Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre raises the bar and will have a significant positive impact for the Southampton Council and the wider community with this amazing project.”
The design of the Southampton Outdoor Sports Centre is the latest architectural triumph from the Lincolnshire firm, which has secured over £50m for sports specific projects and £35m through private investment, strategic alignment of grant aid, section 106, land sale.
LK2 has an impressive track record of successful leisure builds across the UK, including Rectory Park Middlesex, the London-based Park life-funded community hub pavilion. The redevelopment of Market Road's football pitches and pavilion in Islington, and the Borderville Sports Centre a new state of art multi-million-pound sports centre and stadium in Stamford.
