Hilton Hotel & Spa
to continue seamlessly round the stadium to form a
low-level simple roofline, in contrast to the existing
iconic pavilion building with its tensile roof and
masts. The external timber louvre screen facades
give a softly curving organic shape to the bowl and
provide continuity across the various building uses
in hospitality, spectator seating and hotel. Cricketing
aficionados will appreciate the references to the axis of
the bowler’s arm in this positioning, with a form that
reflects the footprint of the stands and pavilion, rather
like two opposing teams.
The choice of materials was inspired by the site’s
locality and heritage, with the hotel drawing on the
existing palette of steel and timber materials already
in use. The effect of the building’s external appearance,
together with carefully integrated landscaping,
enhances the site’s natural parkland setting. A measure
of the success of the design came in 2014 when Test
Match Special’s Jonathan Agnew tweeted a picture of
the view from the Northern End, captioned: “one of
the prettiest grounds, now.”
The project has been brought about in no small
part through an innovative collaboration between
Hampshire Cricket and its local authority, Eastleigh
Borough Council which is also a designated Beacon
Council for sustainability. As such, the client and
design team were conscious throughout the process to
ensure that the project met the Council’s aspirations
for sustainable design, being one of the high-profile
sites within the borough. The project adopted the
BREEAM approach for assessment of sustainable
criteria and this was rigorously applied across the
whole site.
Integral to the sustainable design is the extended
18-hole golf course. Not only does this retain the
connection with the ground’s parkland setting, but
its lakes and water features – as well as adding visual
and playing interest to golfers – form part of the site’s
water management strategy. This is achieved through
attenuating rainwater run-off from the buildings in the
catchment area which is then collected for irrigation.
Together with the hotel’s landscaping, the golf course
design carefully conserves and enhances the habitat
for the site’s important flora and fauna and ecological
diversity.
As with all major sporting venues, transporting large
numbers of spectators on and off the site efficiently,
and providing for their catering and welfare needs
during their stay – as well as ensuring they have an
uninterrupted view of the playing field – is a complex
requirement. Developing the infrastructure through
the construction of additional roads was therefore
the World Of Hospitality
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the first phase of the project. Phase two came with the
construction of the stands in the summer of 2010.
The f