One Oval Square
- Client: Surrey County Cricket Club
- Contacts: Steve Harvey
The development at ‘One Oval Square’ comprises a new three tier stand providing a total of 7,500 seats and a new four storey hospitality and conferencing building. The stand increases the capacity of the stadium to 27,400 seats and provides a new café, club shop, and ticket office.
The conferencing and hospitality spaces include event spaces, new catering and bar facilities, and outdoor and rooftop terraces to significantly enhance the visitor experience and provide an all-year-round events and conferencing facility for the area. The development provides a high-quality all year-round facility for the Club and provides an excellent venue for visitors to an international sporting venue.
The character of the Ground is unique as the seating is not organised into a uniform amphitheatre, but instead, there are a collection of stands, which together with the Locally Listed Pavilion to the south and the OCS Stand to the north, enclose the playing area. Each stand has its own identity, the architecture of which is a clear expression of the period in time in which it was designed and built. The new stand and facilities have been carefully designed to create a modern addition to the Ground, and to sit comfortably within its urban environment.
At pitch side, a contemporary design was desired for the transformation of the existing stand into three new tiers of seating with uninterrupted pitch side views. This was purposely done as SCCC did not want to have a series of columns obscuring views within existing seating areas. The pitch side is in keeping with modern sporting venues with the use of metal cladding, concrete, and steel, a contrast to the formal street elevation strictly ordered in high quality stone and brickwork.
One Oval Square enhances the environment and extend the range and the quality of the facilities including those to serve the local community, improving the public realm around the Oval to provide a better experience to residents and visitors.
The architecture is split between two main realms. On the pitch side the architectural language gets contemporary and bold yet presents a sensitivity which still allows it to take its place within the historic Ground. To the outside, the design relates to the local vernacular with classical proportions and materials, such as bricks and reconstituted stone, matching the local context all following the curve of the oval.
