Beyond the Boys’ Club: Inclusive Architecture Disrupting Sporting Precincts

When Kate Roach and Marianne Calvelo first walked into the 95-year-old John Gent stand at the Western Bulldogs Football Club home ground, they found what Roach describes as “a sick building”—dark, uninspiring and seemingly antithetical to good club culture and athletic excellence. Eighteen months later, their female-led design team transformed this modest component of the Whitten Oval redevelopment into something remarkable. While tens of millions of dollars were being spent on conventional sports facilities next door, this small team of female architects and designers, led by Warren and Mahoney Melbourne principal Kate Roach and senior associate Marianne Calvelo, quietly turned athletic infrastructure on its head. And Roach says their “shameless” approach to warmth and connection over traditional performance-focused design has created the most utilised space across the entire Western Bulldogs precinct. The Western Bulldogs Women’s Health and Leadership Hub proves that sometimes even modest budgets can yield considerable transformations. ▲ Warren and Mahoney Melbourne senior associate Marianne Calvelo and Melbourne principal Kate Roach. The 1300sq m facility was part of the Federal Government’s $15-million commitment to establish a centre of excellence for programs supporting girls and women throughout western Victoria. The team established three non-negotiables: an unmistakable expression of home for Western Bulldogs, ensuring users immediately knew where they were, and delivering that identity differently than expected. “By considering what it felt like underfoot, how the light came in, what you were touching when you sat down,” Roach tells The Urban Developer, “we moved beyond just programming and space planning to focus on how we wanted this space to feel—that was the difference.” Built through a design-and-construct model by Shape over 23 weeks, the project required careful coordination around the club’s active sporting schedule, with works scheduled around AFL, VFL and AFLW matches and training sessions. “Key leadership roles across this project were held by women, which felt very fitting given the project’s vision was to promote women’s health, wellbeing and leadership,” Roach says. Delete The design team had an innate understanding of how women’s sporting communities operate differently from traditional male-dominated environments. “To have that knowledge and then enter this project with that in mind was just an extraordinary insight into the power of a different approach,” Roach says. Where traditional sports facilities emphasise performance and separation, the Hub prioritises what Roach describes as “shameless” warmth and connection. “We said, ‘Let’s just not treat this like a footy club’,” Roach says. “Let’s just not do what has always been done. There’s a level of layering and tactility and softness that is not necessarily through a super architectural lens, typical in modern sports infrastructure. We shamelessly went in the opposite direction.” That focus on sensory experience drives the layout across the facility’s two primary levels. ▲ The distinctive red gym area that serves as what Calvelo terms “a beacon and a celebration of elite sport” within the facility. Level 1 spans about 450sq m and houses a giant red transparent ‘box’ that Calvelo describes as “a beacon and a celebration of elite sport”. Inside is a new gym space featuring acoustic flooring designed to minimise noise transmission. Adjacent facilities include a Pilates studio, five allied health consulting suites, and comprehensive amenities. The centrepiece of Level 1 is “Main Street”—a highly flexible circulation corridor designed to open up the previously compartmentalised space. “It was very intentional to line that Main Street with light timber to amplify the light, because we couldn’t really adjust the windows,” Calvelo says. “The timber lining just illuminated that whole space.” ▲ Calvelo says Main Street was designed as a highly flexible circulation space where diverse groups can gather. This area has hosted everything from International Women’s Day galleries to the Western Bulldogs Community Foundation’s flagship Daughters of the West health programs. Level 3, covering about 350sq m, offers the premium hosting spaces that have become the facility’s commercial cornerstone. The large hosting area features high-end finishes, a kitchenette, and a 130-inch display screen. Two meeting rooms, storage facilities and a separate boardroom provide flexibility for corporate clients ranging from law firms to community health organisations. Despite being what Roach terms a “small drop” in the broader redevelopment, the Hub’s reception has surprised even its creators. “We’re being told that this is the most used space across the whole club,” Calvelo says. “The socialisation is insane. What they keep saying is it’s just so unique, so different to what they would see elsewhere.” Western Bulldogs chief operating officer Sue Clark says the Hub enables the club to expand existing health, wellbeing and leadership programs whilst creating new opportunities to support women at all levels through sport. The hosting space on Level 3 combines Roach’s hospitality background with Calvelo’s approach to “sophisticated flexibility”, creating a space that could seamlessly transform between different functions while maintaining a “grown-up aesthetic”. Strategic luxury investments like stone for the host island create natural gathering points. “That’s where a little bit of money was spent, almost like a visual cue where, like a home kitchen island, people would naturally gravitate towards,” Calvelo says. ▲ The sculptural stone element acts as a social anchor, turning the hosting space into a place that feels both premium and approachable. The design balances Western Bulldogs branding with sophisticated neutrality. While Level 1 features “reds loud and proud”, Level 3 features softer hues and natural palettes including deep greens. “No one really has a strong emotional reaction to deep greens. You can always have a good argument in a green meeting room,” Calvelo jokes. Calvelo stresses how the project’s transparency philosophy addresses deeper social dynamics—extensive glazing and visual connections eliminate the hierarchical separation typical in sports facilities, creating an environment where community members feel welcomed rather than intimidated, and where women’s participation becomes highly visible and normalised. “Visibility is the word,” she says. “Visibility of the program and what’s happening in the building, but also just generally promoting visibility of women. Creating this amazing home for them under the Western Bulldogs club umbrella.” The project’s collaborative process reflected broader themes about women-led teams. “Everyone was very solutions-focused,” Roach says. “Every meeting just felt like we were on track, we were meeting what we needed to do. It was just a delight.” ▲ The flexible meeting space on Level 3 is bathed in natural light from the oval-facing windows—“the best seats in the house”, Roach says. She credits Western Bulldogs ’ Sue Clark and head of infrastructure Jon Couston as “extraordinary advocates” who ensured the project stayed true to its community-focused vision. Roach also credits Shape for its transparent design-and-construct delivery and sustainability considerations that extended beyond design to construction practices. Shape coordinated the recycling and donation of all existing furniture to local Footscray charities, diverting 57.6 tonnes of furniture from landfill. The Hub’s community accessibility extends through not-for-profit and charity hire rates, ensuring broad clientele access, showing how purpose-built women’s sports infrastructure can generate revenue while serving community needs. “This was never intended as a quick project to convert this little unused John Gent stand,” Calvelo says. “It was always meant to be a legacy piece, to get the conversation going, to get the voice going, to get visibility for women in sport.” Like the successful transformation of gym chains from male-dominated spaces to inclusive environments, Roach hopes the facility offers a blueprint showing how prioritising inclusive design and female leadership can deliver exceptional commercial and social outcomes. “There are things buzzing in our office now of other sports projects,” Roach says. “The idea that we could add this to our portfolio feels so right. “This very small piece of work feels very relevant because we’re reimagining this typology and the approach as it’s been traditionally done.”

Beyond the Boys’ Club: Inclusive Architecture Disrupting Sporting Precincts

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