South Melbourne Football Club, Albert Park, VIC

Key principles of adaptive reuse create an exciting community hub

The community develops through culture. After several redevelopments, it was time for South Melbourne Football Club and Lakeside Stadium to receive its communal heart. An opportunity existed to create a cultural architectural statement in the form of a sports hall within the main stadium; a place for fans, families, and futsal.

The development drew on key principles of adaptive reuse, keeping the existing built fabric and sensitively inserting a series of new programs including; the main sports hall/futsal court, new change rooms and bathrooms, bar and café facilities, a refitted main entrance, merchandising space, and boardroom and office spaces. Tectvs' malleable design process was effective in accommodating a diverse range of stakeholders and limited budget, with the club’s iconic ‘South Melbourne Blue’ becoming a key graphic aspect and linking element between the facility. 

The semi-public space drew on the club’s roots as inclusive outsiders, with the all-year usage of the sports hall providing an opportunity to enhance the social aspects of the club. Aside from a high-performance surface, the new sports hall and futsal court features key breakout spaces and an expansive sports bar that opens to introduce a café atmosphere. Indeed, opening the bar and café facilities to the court created strong community-building relationships between court and crowd. Adding to the club culture, the entrance contains merchandising facilities and a point-of-sale terminal. The success of South Melbourne Football Club’s sports hall and futsal court is evidenced by how the new spaces have allowed the relationship between club and community to grow even closer together.