By Aimilia Konialidis & Chiara Turrettini, Y11
LGB’s new sports centre is finally being built. Construction will begin in June of 2021 and will end in the summer of 2023. The building will cost approximately CHF 22,600,000. The new gymnasium will have 7 gym rooms available to everybody on campus including primary, middle and high school students. In addition to the gym rooms, there will be 3 specialised facilities for fitness, occupational sport therapy, and gymnastics. The gymnasium will have 4 classrooms which will be used mainly for sports science lessons. Each gym room will have its own changing room. This will allow students to go directly to their assigned gym room without having to wait in the foyer, as our current gym is structured. The new gymnasium will also allow room for additional bike parking facilities.
As aforementioned, the gym will have 3 rooms for fitness, gymnastics, and occupational sports therapy. The gymnastics room will be specifically adapted to Swiss national standard in order for competitions to be held at LGB. There will also be a triple gymnasium which can be divided into 3 separate gym facilities or merge into 1 large one in order to welcome sport tournaments and competitions for the Jets teams. This triple room offers seating for up to 1000 students, parents, and additional guests, as well as a bar.
During construction, sports classes will continue as normal. Between the Easter holidays and the Summer holidays, temporary facilities will be set up. By summer, the equipment will be moved into these temporary facilities ready for use at the beginning of the new school year. The temporary facilities will be set up on the main car park and basketball court with changing rooms. Extracurricular sports held at school will also continue as usual other than any adaptations made due to COVID-19.
The new gym will also have several environmentally friendly adaptations, such as an installation of solar panels on the roof meaning the building can be self-sufficient in producing electricity and hot water. This allows the building to meet the standards of “Minergie plus”, a Swiss organisation that designs buildings to limit their energy consumption.
An additional feature of the new gym will include a connection to the Centre des Arts on each level. This will not affect any of the teaching spaces within the CdA. The building will also have a reception area on the roof for guests. Lastly, this facility is also designed to be able to hold end of year examinations.
We hope everybody is as excited as we are for this new addition to the campus!
