Architecture office MLZD has built a sports hall with a sculptural concrete wall below ground level to preserve views of a heritage-listed converted monastery in Wettingen, Switzerland.
Swiss firm MLZD designed the sunken sports facility for a site within the grounds of Wettingen Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded in 1227 that was converted into a school in 1976.

The monastery buildings are listed as a heritage site of national significance and have a prominent location on a peninsula that juts out into the Limmat river.
Sports fields and a swimming pool had already been added to an area beyond the monastery wall, and the sports hall is positioned beneath the football pitch to prevent it obstructing views of the historic buildings.
"The situation on the peninsula means that users and visitors have been approaching the monastery complex and its utility buildings for almost 800 years," MLZD pointed out.
"An underground structure was created because it was clear what significance the historical view of the monastery had from the north side."

A set of stairs that passes beneath a running track to the north descends into a cutting connecting the new facility with the older buildings including an existing entrance pavilion to the south.
The submerged passageway provides access to all of the main functional spaces. The path is flanked by a sculptural concrete wall on one side and glazing that offers a view into the sports hall on the other.

The avail...