‘Sport on display’: La Trobe Sports Park enters stage two

La Trobe University is excited to see its purpose-built Sports Park move into stage two, with works commencing on teaching and research areas for sport science subjects including biomechanics, strength and conditioning exercise physiology and sports analytics. La Trobe Sports Park is unique in Australia, being the country’s only facility to co-locate teaching and learning buildings with world class sporting fields – creating a “single hub” for future sports science students. Pro Vice Chancellor for Research and Development at La Trobe Professor Russell Hoye says the Sport Park creates “a unique integrated environment”. “This new stadium allows us to co-locate our research and teaching laboratories for biomechanics, exercise physiology, strength and conditioning and sports analytics amongst our new sports infrastructure, creating a unique integrated environment for collaboration with the sports industry and the community,” he said. “These facilities will transform the student experience, enabling our undergraduate students to undertake their work-integrated learning experiences on campus with our sports partners and extensive range of user groups accessing the sports park. “Our PhD students and staff will be able to work seamlessly between their sport science laboratories and our sports stadium and outdoor facilities, extending the nature and quality of our sport science research. “The new stadium with six indoor basketball courts will also enhance the campus experience as we host a multitude of sport events and offer new sport participation and competition opportunities for our growing student population.” Architects Warren and Mahoney designed the Sports Park, bringing the university’s vision of a place where “sport was on display” to fruition. Warren and Mahoney architect Darryl Maguire said the facility employs a lot of “glass and transparency” to not only fulfil the vision above, but to create a sense of continuity between spaces. This also helps to encourage the “interaction between the indoors and outdoors”. To find out more about the visionary project, Campus Review spoke with Darryl Maguire from Warren and Mahoney.