NTFSH GYMNASIUM | The program calls for a gymnasium that would house two international standard basketball courts, a semi-outdoor basketball court, a fitness center, a table tennis room and a Chinese martial arts room. The building would also feature a total number of eighteen hundred seats all together for the indoor sports along with a state-of-the-art control room and a VIP lounge. With a wide variety of spaces required for this new facility, a long span structure is essential and crucial to provide high-quality sports space for its students and the community. The concept for the building begins with the semi-outdoor basketball court on the first floor which requires a column-free space that measures sixteen meters in width and forty meters in length. The immediate program above this space would be another two international standard basketball courts that would also require another column-free space which measures forty meters in width and fifty-six meters in length. With several long-span structure requirement for the spaces mentioned, a building that act like a bridge on all sides of elevation became the solution for lifting the large floor slabs without having to insert columns in the middle of the gymnasium. A ribbon like bracing member was then developed to weave the form into one single mass with rhythmic movement that depicts the very essence of its function – sports.
