Michael Henderson and Michael Dub show how the Coronation Park Sports and Recreation Centre uses the logic of elite cycling, exposed structure and a twisting skin to create a building that remains legible as community infrastructure rather than a single-purpose venue.
Track geometry drives section
The project starts from an unusual interior requirement: a steeply banked cycling track designed for athletes moving at high speed. That oval is not treated as an object placed inside a generic box. Its geometry becomes an organising device for the roof, circulation, seating and enclosure. A central structural zone supports the large-span roof and creates vertical movement and programme, while the track sits as a suspended, highly controlled element within a broader recreation complex.
Structure and skin align
The enclosure is organised around repeated ribs that mediate between the roof structure and the changing perimeter. That repetition allows a complex form to be rationalised into buildable zones. Where the geometry twists, panelisation and support have to accommodate changing angles without losing the continuous sweep of the building.
Sport becomes civic space
The facade’s civic role is reinforced by transparency at key entrances and gathering areas. Elite sport may be the most technically demanding programme, but the building is intended to support recreation and everyday community use as well. The enclosure therefore has to make the activity visible without turning the whole perimeter into glass.
Straight parts build curves
The project takes an important cue from the construction of the cycling track itself. A velodrome surface looks continuously curved, yet it can be assembled from relatively simple straight timber pieces arranged with precise geometry. Henderson and Dub use the same logic for the building skin: radiating ribs establish the changing section, while the outer enclosure spans between them as a developable surface. Complexity is therefore concentrated in setting-out and geometry rather than in making every component unique. Mass plywood panels form part of that strategy. The large sheets act as sheathing and as a structural diaphragm, locking the ribbed form together before the membrane, insulation and exterior layers are added. Because flat plywood has to follow a twisting volume, the design team checked that the surface could be mathematically unrolled. That developability allowed panel layout, seams, gutters and fixing zones to be planned from a flat pattern and then transferred back onto the three-dimensional building.
Structure supports access
The roof is carried by long trusses and a perimeter ring, with major stair cores functioning as the principal vertical supports. That structure frees the space around the track and helps the community programme occupy the ground and infield levels without being trapped behind the elite-sport geometry. Carved floor plates, social stairs and visual connections allow non-cyclists to understand and move through the building even though the track remains a highly controlled performance surface. The facade's civic character follows from that spatial openness. The outer skin narrows the apparent volume of the hall within a mature park, while transparent areas reveal activity and connect recreation spaces to the landscape. The project is a useful example of facade design beginning with section rather than elevation: the enclosure works because track, roof, structure, circulation, drainage and public access were developed as one continuous problem.
