Northern Ireland Boxing Academy (NIBA) | Edward McKeown

The idea of designing a boxing arena in such a rich urban context excited me greatly. I wanted to implement all my ideas about, context, mass, and grid. The existing site has one Georgian styled building on it and fronts onto the busy Market Square. The site was creating a void in the urban mass. The brief consisted of a boxing arena, gym space, function venue, accommodation for eighteen boxers and associated administrative facilities.

The idea of designing a boxing arena in such a rich urban context excited me greatly. I wanted to implement all my ideas about, context, mass, and grid. The existing site has one Georgian styled building on it and fronts onto the busy Market Square. The site was creating a void in the urban mass. The brief consisted of a boxing arena, gym space, function venue, accommodation for eighteen boxers and associated administrative facilities.


I wanted to design my buildings as a series of rooms that would be knitted into the existing urban fabric. The arena and function venue could be used by the public with the remaining spaces left more private. Therefore I placed public spaces to front onto the street to add to the vibrant life of the city. The use of a variety of materials with different characteristics was important to me. I chose two materials in my design, in situ concrete and timber. Concrete to act as the superstructure component and timber to act as a means of cladding and partition.

The use of natural, pre-existing materials underscores the honesty and integrity which were integral to the design. I also wanted to explore the retention of the existing building and what benefits it could bring to my design by connecting it through an internal bridge.