After renovating the sports centre-pool, the city of Genk decided in 2008 to extend and renovate the sports hall as well.

The architectural team BEL Architects and Ney & Partners housed the new programme in a separate building opposite the now protected existing building.

The team designed a building consisting of three parabolic vaults with a ridge height of 18 metres.
The vaults house two large sports halls, which in turn can be subdivided into three smaller halls.
200 domes provide natural light.

Insulation curved roof

The design set a number of specific requirements in terms of acoustics, thermal resistance, manipulation and shape stability, implementation method, pressure resistance and cost price for the roof insulation.

During the preliminary study, various insulation materials were tested against these requirements. Both as stand-alone materials and in combination with other insulation materials. During discussions with the manufacturers, the limits of the various products were examined. Several mock-ups were also built to visualise and assess the whole.

Finally, the choice fell on the installation of a 3-layer structure of mineral fibre boards with a thickness of 60 mm on the Steeldeck layer of the curved roof.
For the concrete side wall, a 4-layer superstructure made of 3 mineral fibre sheets with a thickness of 60 mm and 1 layer of extruded polystyrene of 100 mm was chosen.