Sportcomplex De Vliet – Connecting City and Landscape

Situated on the edge of Leiden, Sportcomplex De Vliet forms the new centrepiece of the wider Sportpark De Vliet. The site lies within a transitional zone between the urban fabric and the open polder landscape. Alongside the design of the sports building itself, a masterplan was developed for the revitalisation of the entire park. Previously fragmented and lacking cohesion, the park is now unified through a new layer of running tracks and outdoor sport courts, creating an interconnected network that integrates the complex seamlessly into its setting.

Architecture and Materiality

The building accommodates a wide range of facilities, with an ice rink and swimming pool as its principal components. By stacking and interlocking the various volumes, the architects have achieved a compact, efficient footprint. The oval form of the ice rink and the rectilinear mass of the pool define the architectural composition, their sculptural shapes accentuated by deep vertical fins that modulate light and break down the scale of the pure white forms.

Both main volumes rest upon a continuous plinth of solid green concrete housing changing rooms, storage, and technical spaces. Between these, areas of glazing and light-toned timber introduce transparency and warmth, giving the complex an open, welcoming presence.

The choice of Petrarch reconstituted stone rainscreen facade panels in a harmonious green palette helps to blend the boundary between nature and modernity and works in beautiful contrast to the industrial metal facade cladding of the ice rink.