
Super Bock Arena – Pavilhão Rosa Mota
LOCATION:
Port (PRT)
ARCHITECT:
Ferreira de Almeida Arquitetos Lda.
MODEL:
Greta
MORE INFO:
www.superbockarena.pt (client)
www.fa-arquitectos.pt (architects)
The iconic building Pavilhão Rosa Mota, newly renamed to Super Bock Arena – Pavilhão Rosa Mota, was entirely refurbished and retrofitted so as to effectively cope with the city’s demands of hosting large cultural, sporting, and business events, with a capacity to house up to 8,000 people (in a format with closed telescopic tribunes) or 5,500 people (seated event).
This is a historic building, integral part of Porto cityscape. The sports pavilion’s present name is borrowed from Portugal’s first female olympic gold medalist and a Portuense, Rosa Mota. In fact, this UFO-shaped half-sphere that ‘landed’ in the gardens of Palácio de Cristal was built with the purpose of hosting the 1952’s roller hockey World Championship. The original building, which was built in the fifties, was in need of restoring for years now – the renovation kicked off in the end of 2017 with an investment that surpassed eight million euros. The Super Bock Arena – Pavilhão Rosa Mota project was undertaken by the Círculo de Cristal Consortium, made up by Lucios and PEV Entertainment. It is worth highlighting the creation of a much needed Congress Centre, on the ground floor, which includes an amphitheatre/auditorium, with room capacity for 532 seats, an exhibition area, and four rooms for business events. Retractable stands are another novelty which enable the reallocation of room space to fit any event and the number of participants.
The Super Bock Arena – Pavilhão Rosa Mota project took into consideration sustainability issues, in order to leave a green footprint in the city. So, energy and resource efficiency were a main concern during the project implementation, namely the natural cooling of the temperature control machines by resorting to the lake water of the Gardens of Palácio de Cristal, which reduces nearly 40% of energy consumption and water waste. The use of double glazed high pressure laminate windows inside the dome and tempered glass on the outside enables a much more energy efficient building. The illumination system – LED bulbs were used – and responsible waste management are other examples of sustainable options used in the refurbished building.
And finally, let’s not forget the room acoustics, which is crucial for every type of performance. The entire structure is covered with a multilayer of rock wool, as well as an acoustics screen embedding the buds or spaces between the pillars. The visual impact is minimum as the canvas were specifically arranged for that purpose. The 768 eyepieces that make up the building dome exterior – a brand image – were also maintained to preserve the exterior architectural identity.
Ascénder developed specifically for this project the new Greta chair entirely manufactured in polypropylene: a chair with 47cm width back and curved seat with perforations for acoustics. The chair is bench mounted to avoid gaps between chairs and to reduce the number of pedestals & fixing plates to the floor. Both seat and back have two pieces: the structure is gas injected while the covers are polypropylene injected. Given the special acoustic requirements of this venue, all chairs have perforated outer covers and the “Fono” finish: absorptive materials inserted into the structure of the seat. Apart from the 5,000 Greta chairs our company also supplied the telescopic tribunes for 1,400 units as well as the 532 Space Plus chairs for the auditorium / congress hall.