Diffused daylighting at the FA’s National Football Centre

Architects RedBox Design Group have designed this dramatic multi-purpose facility, on its 134 hectare site, to focus on coaching and education, including sports science and sports medicine facilities. The main contractor was Bowmer & Kirkland.

Of particular interest is the full size indoor football pitch and the separate sports hall both of which are side lit with Kalwall, supplied by Stoakes Systems.  The cladding not only evenly diffuses natural daylight but creates perfect playing conditions by eliminating glare and shadows.

Importantly, the architects have maximised  the highest levels of daylight insulation and energy efficiency by incorporating Lumira aerogel within 950sqm of the 2780sqm of Kalwall used on the site. This produces a remarkable insulating ‘U’ value of 0.28W/m2K, equivalent  to a solid wall.

Sometimes called “frozen smoke”, aerogel is the lightest and best insulating solid in the world.  Lumira aerogel is a hydrophobic aerogel produced as particles. Each particle consists largely of air, up to 95%, contained in a structure with pore sizes less than the mean free path of air molecules, which severely inhibits heat transfer through the material (www.cabotaerogel.com refers).