ParaSports & Fitness Complex

Every design decision has the potential to include or exclude the users, especially the specially-abled community and a major setback seen about this is in the field of sports.

Sports not only helps us in maintaining our physical fitness but contributes a lot in our mental well being as well and this is especially important for people with any kind of disability.

Even though sports as a field is developing rapidly, not much importance is given to para-sports, which is sports for specially-abled, mostly in terms of infrastructure in India

In Para sports, athletes with physical disability (the ones in wheelchairs, with prosthetic limbs, and without senses such as hearing or sight) compete.

From recent years, the field of sports for people with disabilities has been steadily experiencing professionalization and is drawing more public attention especially in India. In many disciplines, the records achieved by athletes with disabilities have now come close to those of sports persons without disabilities - a fact that contributes to its enhanced attractiveness for spectators. On one hand, this development is the result of a wider participant base and physically always better prepared athletes and, on the other hand, it is also the outcome of technological progress achieved in the domain of material-intensive sports.

 

 

Design Intent

Architecture is an important tool which influences its users both physically and mentally, thus the design intent of this project is to bridge the gap between the current the opportunities and facilities provided to the specially-abled community and what they actually deserve.

For achieving this, I intend to design a “Para-Sports & Fitness Complex” that has the following characters in a hierarchical manner.

- A space to train para-athletes in the 6 selected sports for elite competitions like Paralympics, Para Asian World Games etc.

- Recreational sports space open to all the users (specially-abled and able-       bodied)

- Spaces for holding charity events for para-sports (amphitheaters, auditoriums).

For para-athletes (for elite competitions) and locals of middle and upper class society (for recreational facilities), at Panvel, Navi Mumbai. The program is an outcome of a systematic method.

The site is located in Panvel, in a urban context the center shall provide a platform for awareness about para-sports and reduce the barriers between the specially-abled and able-bodied people (attitudinal, architectural, administrative and programmatic barriers) through institutional and recreational means.

The climate present here is a tropical, wet and dry climate. The site’s micro-climate can be best described as moderately hot with high level of humidity. Its close proximity to the stream, fish farm and the river; and tropical location ensures temperature do not fluctuate much throughout the year.