NEWTON — A new field house at Newton Athletic Park was among a dozen Award of Excellence winners at the 2015 AIBC Architectural Awards held on Oct. 28.
The City of Surrey-built structure, said to be inspired by the overlapping folds of a soccer ball, was built to visually complement a new waterpark and large-scale playground.
The award was presented to Public Architecture + Communication Inc., the firm responsible for the design of the red field house.
"Newton’s park needs are simultaneously immense and intimate," according to a post on the AIBC awards website. "At times, the park hosts regional sport tournaments and at others it is a neighbourhood park. To bridge these scales, the (100-square-metre) field house is conceived… as one of a series of structures in a playground. On game day, the structures visually unite through consistent colour treatment. Inside, a minimum of doors or corners ensure user flow is unimpeded. For the rest of the year, the building’s soft forms counter the perception of the building’s scale."
The field house contains bathroom facilities and a mechanical room for the waterpark.
“The addition of the Field House to Newton Athletic Park is part of our ongoing commitment to infrastructure to enhance recreation and sport facilities for residents and visitors,” stated Surrey Mayor Linda Hepner.
“We are pleased and honoured that the Field House project has received such prestigious recognition.”
The 22-acre Newton Athletic Park features four artificial-turf fields, four natural-turf winter fields with two overlapping cricket fields, three natural-turf summer fields, one 8x8 and three mini soccer fields, eight tennis courts, and one BMX track. Additional amenities include two playgrounds, an on-site daycare and more than two kilometres of pathways for walking and jogging.
The AIBC, or Architectural Institute of British Columbia, is an independent, professional self-regulatory body with a mandate to "regulate the profession of architecture within the province in the public interest."