COLLIDER ACTIVITY CENTER
Project List
Project Info

    Name: Collider Activity Center

    Year: 2013

    Design Architect: Zerafa Studio LLC

    Design Team: Jason Zerafa, Joaquin Boldrini, Javiera Bravo, Sebastian Vasquez

    Joint Venture Architect: Gregory T. Waugh Architect, AIA, Leed AP

    Facility: Climbing Center and sports Facility

    Size: 7,000 m2

    DESCRIPTION

    The Collider Activity Center will be a unique urban sanctuary in Sofia where successful, high- energy people of all ages can engage in leisure activities, test and challenge themselves both physically and mentally, refresh their bodies and minds, and meet and network with a like-minded community of enthusiasts. These goals provide us with an opportunity to break away from the derivative fitness center typology, and develop a new more appropriate typology that blurs the lines between leisure, fitness and community space. The building typologies that exist, the community center, the fitness center, climbing center and the social club, are combined to form the Collider Activity Center. Climbing is often considered a perfect metaphor for life, and in literature and reality, has often symbolized the triumph of the human spirit through adversity, but indoor climbing has become a popular fitness activity with its own merit, and the synergies created within the proposed program are exciting to consider. We recognize that Climbing is more than just fitness, and at its most pure, can be an art form. It is this idea of art, or the performance of this art, that exposes the dichotomy between the inherent intimacy of climbing, and the public nature of the Center. It is here, that our desire to create a singular expression of these two ideas is born and manifested in the design, one where the building and the activity are one.

    The Collider Activity Center is conceived of conceptually as an ideal “found geological object”, one that is formed out of an extruded chevron shaped volume that has been gradually eroded over time to create the weathered and fractured surfaces that make up the climbing areas, entry apertures and exposed edges. The purity and relative simplicity of the volume is contrasted by the deformation of the exterior edges and the dramatic hollowed out cavern that defines the Climbing hall and public spaces. The fractured surfaces defined throughout the hall reflect a moment captured in time, preserved and encapsulated to create a constructed interior environment for climbing. Inspired by the monumental scale and morphology of Karst landscapes throughout the world, the Collider form is one that, like the ancient geology of the natural landscape, is in constant, but subtle evolution as new surface geometries are applied, and new climbing routes defined.

    The interior climbing surface is formed by attaching the Walltopia panel system onto a structural steel frame, which defines the basic geometry of the interior space. The structural frame is composed of HSS tubing, and forms a 3-dimensional substrate upon which a dramatic climbing surface is created. The base geometry includes a combination of high climbing walls, boulder climbing, a dramatic arch-bridge, deep overhangs and a 17m high free-standing rock tower. The rock tower form conceals an exit stair from the roof level bar and its vertical shaft can be used to exhaust magnesium heavy air from the climbing hall through both natural convection and a supplemental mechanical system located above and below the tower. Throughout the Climbing Hall, the modular system of surface panels allows for defined areas of panels to be interchanged with new panel shapes and or surface materials to provide flexible climbing surfaces, without dramatically changing the overall massing of the interior. This system also allows for the precise control over the terrain geometry and route difficulty. The ability to in effect, “climb the building", is the essential quality of our approach.

COLLIDER ACTIVITY CENTER


Name: Collider Activity Center
Year: 2013
Design Architect: Zerafa Studio LLC
Design Team: Jason Zerafa, Joaquin Boldrini, Javiera Bravo, Sebastian Vasquez
Joint Venture Architect: Gregory T Waugh Architect, AIA, Leed AP
Facility: Climbing Center and Sports Facility
Size: 7,000 m2


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