Green light for Ireland’s first indoor velodrome

FaulknerBrowns Architects has announced that its design for Ireland’s first indoor velodrome has been granted planning approval.

The National Velodrome and Badminton Centre will sit within the Sport Ireland Campus in Dublin. With both athlete and community facilities, the Centre will aim to encourage participation in sport and promote the benefits of cycling to the wider community.

The National Velodrome and Badminton Centre will include a 250m cycle track, with 12 badminton courts within the infield and around 1,000 permanent seats for spectators. Other spaces, including the entrance and café, changing rooms, offices, training facilities and bicycle hire/stores, will sit under the track at ground level.

The velodrome will provide a permanent home for Cycling Ireland and Badminton Ireland, at what is intended to be a landmark venue for national and international events. The building will also be multi-functional, with 2,500 temporary seats to accommodate non-sporting events and activities.

FaulknerBrowns design proposals feature light coloured, concave metal cladding, surrounding the arena level in a continuous ribbon reminiscent of cycling components. Improvements to the landscape surrounding the centre and within the campus have also been approved, including a new pedestrian and cycle route into the site, planting new trees and wildflower meadows and creating sustainable urban drainage features.

Una May, Sport Ireland CEO, said: “News of the velodrome’s approval is a really exciting start to 2023. We are delighted to see our plans for the Sport Ireland Campus progressing and the National Velodrome and Badminton Centre is an important next step.

“This will be somewhere for the community and for elite athletes to come together, sharing facilities at a new destination for sport in Ireland.”

The National Velodrome and Badminton Centre is the first high-level project scheduled for delivery under a major revamp of the Sport Ireland Campus unveiled by the Irish Government in November.  A planning application for the Centre had been lodged with Fingal County Council by Sport Ireland in August.

Cricket Ireland is poised to end a long wait to receive a permanent stadium after a project was included in the masterplan for the long-term development of the Sport Ireland Campus.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin unveiled the Sport Ireland Campus Masterplan Vision, which set out a framework for the growth of the Campus, located in the Abbotstown area of Dublin, and the long-term development of associated sporting facilities over the next 15 to 20 years.

The wide-ranging masterplan, which FaulknerBrowns is also responsible for, intends to capture the aspirations of Sport Ireland and identify a proposed guide for the delivery of this vision. The Sport Ireland Campus is already home to world class sporting and support facilities and more will be added in the coming years through investment expected to amount to hundreds of millions of euros.