Polygon

With the continued advancements in the gaming industry and the increased number of players across the globe, video games now represent more than just digital entertainment. They have the ability to teleport gamers worldwide into a whole new and exciting dimension. In the past few years, E-sports popularity has taken off, with gaming competitions and conferences growing larger and occurring more frequently. Typical exhibition centres are sometimes not up to the task of providing the proper environment for gamers and accommodating gaming activities. Enter E-sports arenas or gaming arenas, places built especially for gaming activities with halls and rooms specifically designed around the gamer's needs.

Our site is located in Dubai sports city. Filled with all kinds of sports centres, it is the place to go if you are looking to build an E-sports centre.

Concept

We started our concept development with a very different goal in mind. We wanted to resemble the same effect of entering an open-world game in which the player would feel like he/she are going into a different dimension. So we designed a gaming arena that looks like a spiral so as to give the effect of transporting the visitor into a different world.

That idea didn’t turn out as we thought it would in practice since the whole building is a spiral. Given the limited height of only 15 m, the outer walls would have to tip in at such a racked angle that interior space would be compromised, so the idea was scrapped.

The second idea was to design a building that’s inspired by a specific videogame or gaming console, but this idea was revoked quickly because it was too specific to one section of the gaming community whereas a gaming centre should cater and be more welcoming to fans of all games and consoles.

Since the main goal is to design a gaming centre, our target was set to create a building that’s modern, unique, edgy and unusual, something that would look like it came out from another alternative universe. Most importantly, it has to reflect it's identity and has to look like a gaming centre.

How do we make a building invoke the idea of gaming by merely looking at it? Simple. Make it SHARP!!! But why? Well, if you ever played older video games that have a low graphical quality, you will notice that rounder objects are sharp around the edges that’s because any 3D object is created using polygons with triangles that are connected to form any shape possible that’s why any gaming-related device (think gaming mouse's and PC's) usually have tapered edges and creases as a decoration, we used the polygon technique to make our building look like it came from an old video game.

To make the building look the way we described earlier, we had to come up with a building that would look like nothing else surrounding it, so we decided to create a cantilever roof. Not only will it make our building look more unusual, but it will provide shade around the entrance. To complement the cantilever roof, a floating lounge was added on the other end, creating a very different multi-level seating area that looks like a space ship in and out. Making it the perfect relaxation space for gamers after an intense gaming session.

FAR

The competition states that the building should have a floor area ratio (FAR) of 1.0, with a maximum floor capacity of 30% of the total site area, this building achieves the aforementioned ratio with a near-perfect accuracy. All floors have an area of roughly 25% that of the site’s, an outside seating the lower 2 floors are identical. Same is the case for the upper 2 floors. An outside seating area is provided on the 2nd floor, each floor is 3 m in height.

Structure

Having a cantilever seating area proved to be a structural challenge, the building is a concrete-steel composite structure, roughly 60% of the building is made out of concrete. It is a uniformed grid that sits on concrete footing and starts from the basement parking level all the way until the flat roof. The steel structure forms the more complex parts such as the lounge, the roof, and the arena since concrete columns would be insufficient at providing structural strength in a span greater than 12 m.

Site Design

By looking at the exterior renders, you’re probably wondering what are those bright monoliths are around the building? When designing the site, we thought that having green areas and trees is not the right way to go, since they don’t fit the building and go against the modern edgy theme we’re looking for, so we replaced them with screen tubes, they are screens attached to slanted monoliths. They can be used for multiple reasons such as game advertisements or showcasing an event, they display falling pixels as shown in the render.

Interior

The main focus inside is the arena, it has the typical cinema seating layout, the reason it’s designed like that it simple, you are only focusing on a fixed screen, while typically the stadium layout is mostly used in current E-sports events, we find it very wasteful in terms of space and as they serve functions that could further be optimised.  Here since the focus point is not moving, unlike a sports stadium where players move around randomly and there is a need for a surround-view.

Materials

Materials play a huge role in reflecting the buildings’ identity, in our case, we used brushed aluminium cladding as our main material outside, all glass surfaces are finished in a smoked tint, and everything is wrapped up with LED strips around the edge, making the building shine at night, embracing the polygon theme all around.

The vibe outside is clearly reflected inside, that is especially true in the floating lounge, with illuminated stars, gloss black finish on walls and floors, polygons on the sealing, light strips and screens even the furniture was carefully selected to match the surrounding, overall, the interior is clearly inspired by gaming and looks very stylish and modern.

Conclusion

We as a team are very pleased with the end result, it's clear that we faced some problems during the concept phase, but we managed to get through it while understanding the importance of reflecting the identity of the building, a gaming arena should look unique, because it serves a unique function,10 years ago, gaming arenas didn't exist. thus, a designer must acquire the ability to adapt to market changes quickly and has to have a general sense of all things in life, because architecture and design are limitless in their shape, form and function.

Figure Sources

https://diyguru.org/tech-trends/digital-gardens/