Norwich City Football Club Academy
Our client Norwich City Football Club wishes to be seen within the football world as a genuine leader in developing young talent and as a club that provides pathway and opportunity.
Improved training, sport science and education facilities are key to allowing them to make this vision a reality by providing a new home for the Academy which can become a magnet for the best talent and the best developers of talent.
The new building provides 11 new player changing rooms, two match official changing rooms, a player lounge, three training rooms with support offices, a match analysis suite and an open plan administration base for up to 40 staff. The architectural response has sought to provide a dynamic, contemporary and professional facility befitting of the Academy’s Category 1 status – A place where young players can find inspiration and receive world class coaching.
A new gym block, which will be used by both the First Team and the Academy, sits perpendicular to the academy building, forming an ‘L’ shape, and has views out across the pitches. This facility significantly houses new state of the art gym equipment and significantly upgrades the existing on site provision, providing much needed internal and external training space.
Natural materials have been used throughout the scheme which follow the principles of biophilic design, an approach that responds to humans’ innate connection to the natural world to help, to create an environment and promotes health, wellbeing, productivity and creativity. The timber cladding utilised externally is also referenced throughout the interior, which can be seen as users progress through the building.
Reconstruction of the Academy Training Pitches has delivered first class training pitches that will be available for use all year round, ensuring the quality of the Academy Training Pitches meet the standard of the current first team pitches and increasing the usable pitch area by 15%.