Sport England seeks to provide generic best practice design advice and requirements for building types and sporting activities covering a range of aspects.  If you are planning the development of new, or refurbished, sports facilities please refer to Sport England’s Design Guidance Notes for detailed advice.

Design Guidance Newsletter Spring 2008)
The Newsletter gives updates and alerts on specific issues relating to sports facility design.  It also gives information on forthcoming new and updated Design Guidance Notes.

Frequently Asked Questions Spring 2008)
The ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ document seeks to provide answers to common questions received via our email enquiry service.  Sport England is unable to respond to individual enquiries.

September 2007: New!  
National Governing Bodies for Sport: A Database of Design and Technical Information
This new document provides a database of existing National Governing Body of Sport technical guidance related to the design, construction and maintenance of sporting facilities.


Design Guidance Notes
Sport England’s Design Guidance Notes are listed alphabetically below and are free to download.  Sport England will be looking to update existing and post new Design Guidance Notes on a periodic basis.

Access for Disabled People (2.4 Mb)   Facility Audit Sheet (610 Kb) please use in conjunction with Sport England's guidance note 'Access for Disabled People' when considering access requirements for a modern sports facility
Active Design.
March 2008: Updated!  Athletics (810 Kb)
A revised 2008 edition of Sport England’s guidance updated in collaboration with UK Athletics.
Badminton (90kb)
Better places for sport (507 Kb)
Car parking and landscape design (683 Kb)
Comparative Sizes - Pitches & Courts (914 Kb)
Construction Project Management in the Voluntary Sector (145 Kb)
Cycling (2.1 Mb)
Designing for Sport on School Sites
Environmental Sustainability
March 2008: New!: Fitness and Exercise Spaces
This new guidance is dedicated to the promotion of good practice in the design and usage of studio spaces and fitness suites.
Floors for Indoor Sports
Indoor Bowls (336 Kb) -
Natural turf for sport (1.2 Mb)
Pavilions and clubhouses (460 Kb)
Optimum Sports Hall (288 Kb) - Order Form
Sports halls: design (627 Kb)
Sports halls: sizes and layouts (473 Kb)
March 2008: New! Swimming Pools
This major publication seeks to outline the principles of good swimming pool design for all those involved in developing swimming provision.
Village and community halls (608 Kb)



A Guide to the Design, Specification and Construction of Multi Use Games Areas (MUGAs) including Multi-Sport Synthetic Turf Pitches  (STP’s).  
Part 1 - General guidance and design considerations (245 Kb)
Part 2 - General procurement and contract guidance (207 Kb)
Part 3 - General conditions and preliminaries (921 Kb)

Sport England has prepared the above three part guidance note on MUGA’s and STP’s, in partnership with the Sports and Play Construction Association (SAPCA) to assist in the preparation of MUGA and STP projects.  Also refer to the below synthetic turf pitch example pitch layouts including run off & safety margins

Layout 1 (730 Kb)
Layout 2 (1.1 Mb)

Case Studies
March 2008: New!  Active England Case Studies
This series of case studies, one from each of Sport England’s nine regions, highlights examples of good practice constructed under the ‘Active England’ Programme.

Planning Information:
Through policy advice and a network of town planners in each of our regions, Sport England gives advice on what type of sports facilities are needed and where by communities in the future. We also advise on how to protect and improve the current stock of facilities and issue informative Planning Bulletins. In particular, Sport England has a specific remit to protect playing fields.  For further information click here.


Funding / Management Information:
If you're applying for funding, Sport England has produced a series of guidance notes and templates covering a range of topics which will help you develop your project idea. For further information click here.


Monitoring and Evaluation Information:
In order to build the evidence base for sport it is critical that all sports related projects can track their achievements.  Sport England has developed a Monitoring and Evaluation Toolkit which provides guidance on collecting information on a wide range of sports related projects.

Footnote
The documents and information on this section of the website are offered for general information only. Amendments, alterations and updates may take place from time to time. When using Sport England Design Guidance you should always download the documents at the time of use in order to ensure that you are referring to the most up-to-date information. The term Design Guidance should be taken to imply the minimum standards required to produce best practice solutions acceptable to Sport England.

Whilst every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this section of the website and the Design Guidance Notes contained herein, Sport England, or its agents, shall not be held responsible or liable to any party in respect of any loss, damage or costs of any nature arising directly or indirectly from reliance placed on this information. The views expressed are not intended to take away or diminish the responsibility of the user to comply with current or future legislation and if there are any conflicts between the views expressed in this document and legislation, the latter takes precedence.


Links

Please use the below selected web-links as potential for further useful information.

For further bodies and a comprehensive list click here


National Governing Bodies for Sport
For a full and comprehensive list of NGB’s click here

Building Schools for Future Programme
BSF Culture     www.bsf-culture.co.uk

A joint Sport England, Arts Council and Yorkshire Culture collaborative website aimed at promoting sports and arts opportunities under the Building Schools for Future Programme

Sustainable Development
The Building Research Establishment (BRE)     www.bre.co.uk
also refer to the BRE’s Environment Assessment Method (BREEAM):
www.breeam.org

The Carbon Trust (Action Energy)    www.thecarbontrust.co.uk
also refer to Action Energy’s sports centre energy efficiency benchmarking:
www.actionenergy.org.uk/ae/sports+benchmarking/index.html

Other Sites of Interest - Click here