Ricardo Toro, Efren Santana, Jose Antonio Nunez, Jose Luis Leon
Urban-Think Tank’s Vertical Gymnasium (GIMNASIO VERTICAL™) is a prefabricated construction system installed on the site of a run down, existing inner-city sport field. The design of the Los Teques Gym explores a modular and vertical arrangement of facilities for various sports but also includes an Olympic pool with covered bleachers on top of a Parking Structure.
Los Teques is designed just outside Caracas at the top of a hill, at 1,777 meters above sea level, it belongs to the Pedro Maria Ochoa Morales U.E. of the Ramo Verde Sector, in front of the Ramo Verde Military School of the Guaicaipuro Municipality, of the city of Los Teques in the Miranda State.
The conceptualization of the architectural element GV is a permeable prismatic object in terms of pedestrian access on the ground floor and natural elements such as lighting and ventilation on the upper levels, being a container for its corresponding activities in a vertical arrangement.
The Physical/Structural Component of the gym is formed by a prismatic prefabricated steel construction with slab plates and enclosure of light industrial materials (Cyclon Mesh, Luvitec and Carbolux Panels). The building is composed of 4 levels and interconnected volumes, offering an attractive inner multifunctional sports space and support locker areas below and covered basketball field above.
The special design element that makes this gym different to all our other projects is the addition of an Olympic Pool, Parking, Changing Room, Bathrooms and Coaches Office.
The building pool component is designed on a sloping hill and has concrete foundations on which the pool is built. The olympic swimming pool, whose dimensions are 50m long by 25m wide, consists of 10 lanes, each with a width of 2.5m and depth of 1.80m and its use is estimated for 1000 people.Finally, to the northeast of the complex and along the pool are the covered bleachers and they connect at 1.35m with the second set of bleachers by two bridges, which run in an east-west direction and are located in the opposite ends of the space containing the pool.
Venezuela needs a campaign to build gyms with teaching pools for underprivileged kids in the Barrios of Caracas. Despite proposed budget cuts the Vertical Gym Los Teques is a managed public pool for the city suburbs and one might intuitively assume, gives kids a safe and healthy activity on summer afternoons. UTT's goal is that there should be a city where children should pretty much go where they want to go to find sports facilities with a pool, regardless of what neighborhood they live in.
