Burgess Park Sports Pavilion is a new public facility that improves the usability of amenities in the popular South London park, while creating a distinctive identity.

Burgess Park Sports Pavilion is a new public facility that improves the usability of amenities in the popular South London park, while creating a distinctive identity.

The new building includes a clubroom, changing rooms, public amenities and offices for park staff. As well as providing exemplary sports facilities and community amenity space, Bell Phillips’ pavilion serves as a marker building within Burgess Park. The single storey building’s form visibly tapers towards the entrance in both height and width, creating a natural point of focus and a legible point of arrival for pedestrians. The building’s extended form helps to frame the edge of the road traversing the park, and mirrors a long avenue of trees opposite.

Robust, natural materials are used to complement the pavilion’s park setting. Perforated copper panels are used as cladding for the building exterior and as a plant screen, arranged as pleats that animate the elongated façade. From a distance, this creates a strong vertical rhythm against a boulevard of mature lime trees, while closer up the façade creates an intriguing play of transparency, solidity and shadow.

The pavilion’s clubroom overlooks the pitches, providing a welcoming social space for players and spectators alike. In warm weather and on busy match days, the clubroom can be opened up, increasing capacity and creating an added spatial experience.

Internally, a simple palette of exposed materials is used, with an inherent robustness and durability to minimise maintenance requirements. Partitions are constructed with fair faced blockwork below exposed steel beams, which continue the building rhythm and exaggerate its form. The plywood face to the underside of the roof is also left exposed, providing a contrasting softness and warmth.

Designed to fit well within its landscaped context, Burgess Park Sports Pavilion helps to shape a strong identity for the park. Its practical design and carefully selected materials create a building that is both visually engaging and easy to maintain in the long term.