Audi Arena, Győr

Architect: János Sándor
Text: Fanni Gárdos
Photos: Tibor Zsitva

The new sports hall is really important for the city of Győr as sports events are so high-standard there that they definitely have deserved such fine conditions and facilities. The women’s handball team has especially earned it recently with their excellent results. As winners of the invitational tender, János Sándor and his fellow archutects designed the new complex. Since 1976 it has been the premises of Magvassy sports hall, which has a highly prestigious n image enriched with a lot of sensational success, experience and miraculous events throughout its 40 years of existence. As such, it has well deserved to be referred to as the heart of sports life in Győr. How shall these two buildings co-exist in the same neighbourhood? In this case designers decided to let the two halls grow closely together, much in the same way as Siamese twins do. The old hall is used now for warm-up activities and sports events of minor importance and smaller scale. Besides, it has been extended with a so-called „changing house”. The buffet, the VIP and media areas are housed in the joint part of the two structures, and this configuration allowed them to serve both halls. Viewed from the outside, the hall is embraced by a dual facade resembling a rounded off, streamlined chassis wrapped in a mesh decorated with a unique print design and stretched on a metal structure. A computer-assisted three-unit lighting system is housed in between the two facades. The new sports hall is multi-functional, and when there is a great match taking place here the hall can be used with its total seating capacity (suited for 5,500 spectators), whilst during daytime it can also perfectly and simultaneously host less frequented events. However, the priority concern of design work here was to meet the needs of the athletes.

General design: Teatro-Építész Műterem Kft.
Architects: János Sándor, Balázs Fodor, Krisztián Sallai, Lajos Börzsei, Ildikó Raffay, Norbert Bognár, Gábor Szakonyi
Interiors: Éva Szendrényi, Thorsten Wagner
Structure: László Kántor, Imre Cserpes, Ernő Róth, János Guzmics
HVAC: Zoltán Fok, Roland Lukács
Electrical engineering: Gyula Baracskai, Jolán Jurics, István Becski, Ágoston Perger
Public utilities: Sándor Szabó
Acoustics: Andor Fürjes
Sports technology: Zoltán Judik
Main contractor: Magvassy Konzorcium – Fertődi Építő és Szolgáltató Zrt., Swietelsky Magyarország Kft., ZÁÉV Építőipari Zrt.
Client: Győr Megyei Jogú Város (Győrprojekt Kft.)