08
the World Of Hospitality
Hilton Hotel & Spa
The Opening Of Hilton’s Hotel & Spa
marks the final stage in the redevelopment
of Hampshire Cricket’s The Ageas Bowl.
Innovative hotel design sets new standards for international cricket grounds.
F
or over a hundred years, Southampton city
centre boasted its own county cricket ground,
the home of Hampshire. However, by the
1990s the historic ground was ageing and becoming
increasingly hemmed in by the growth of the city
around it. In a decisive break with the past, Hampshire
Cricket Ltd made a bold move to relocate the cricket
ground and construct a brand new stadium. The first
games were played at the new venue in 2001 and
international cricket arrived in 2006. But the company
was not content to leave it at that.
The Hampshire Cricket board set an ambitious goal:
to become the first test ground to achieve the England
and Wales Cricket Board’s standard for model test
ground status. The criteria for this are exacting, with
minimum requirements set for playing facilities,
spectator seating, accommodation, hospitality, press
and media facilities, public transport, parking and
ancillary services. So when the Hampshire Cricket
board appointed hotel experts EPR Architects to
masterplan the redevelopment of Southampton’s
the Ageas (then Rose) Bowl, EPR knew the project
demanded a truly exceptional scheme. Nick Rayner,
Associate Director and project architect, explained,
“The redevelopment marked a unique opportunity to
create a world-class sporting venue to a holistic design
that would set it apart from traditional grounds with
their eclectic mix of stands and facilities added on
through the decades.”
EPR led a team of specialist designers to meet this
challenging brief within a comprehensive masterplan.
Their solution is truly innovative. Ensuring excellence
in both accommodation and press and media
facilities, EPR has designed a hotel that wraps around
the stadium bowl. The pitch-facing bedrooms are
constructed in such a way that they convert to
hospitality and spectator use on major match days,
and the second-floor central function room becomes
a world-class media centre for press and broadcasting.
The building can therefore operate as a hotel for the
vast majority of the year, but the requisite facilities are
available on match days and other sporting occasions.
This highly flexible dual-purpose use makes the Ageas
Bowl fundamentally unique in terms of both its hotel
and stadium design. Such a revolutionary approach
led to EPR being shortlisted for Leisure Architect of
the Year.
Having conceived a pioneering functional solution,
EPR were mindful to retain a holistic approach to the
entire site to preserve its existing natural landscaping.
The hotel and stands have therefore been positioned