Being the best of the best

By Jamie Southam, Head of Sports and Specialist Structures at Smart-Space

“At Smart-Space we promote a number of beliefs that tend to raise eyebrows but really please our customers. We honestly believe you should build a sports hall from the inside out, spending as much of your budget as you can on its facilities and flooring. We don’t agree with unnecessary spend on architects and designers where there is simply no need. And we love to work with specialists who know their stuff to result in a collaboration that works for the school every time.

With the types of building we can provide there isn’t a need for external design professionals, quantity surveyors or structural engineers. We can supply a lightweight steel building that meets all required local authority guidelines and building regulations. Our own compliance and surveying teams complete all the checks, plans and paperwork required.

We put the Head of Sport at the heart of the build so we can find out exactly what is needed from the space. The spec can be flexible too – we can extend, reduce, add additional facilities, changing rooms, refectories and canteen space at a later date if required or when additional funding allows. This level of flexibility isn’t easy with a traditional build and is one of the big advantages of the modular units we install.

The concept of teams comes into its own as we bring together some of the UK’s finest sports providers such as Dynamik who we’ve worked with to provide stunning, hard-wearing and flexible flooring solutions. We have invested in a lot of in-house expertise from compliance to planning. My own personal passion includes court sports such as padel and tennis. It’s the multitude of skills and experience that we bring together that makes a Smart-Space building a popular choice.

Our solutions for schools also hinge on being hard-working. We recently built a permanent sports facility that has been in use as the main school whilst the traditional bricks and mortar school is being built. Once the school is completed, the temporary classroom space will revert back to being used as a dedicated sports facility. We really enjoy that sort of challenge.

Whatever is needed, we bring everyone together to make sure we have the right team in place for the very best outcome.”

Jamie.southam@smart-space.co.uk