The city itself serves as a stage for major sports events and as a sports space for individual and not organized sports such as running, biking and skateboarding. The scale of sports spaces ranges from large sports parks for professional competition and narrow allies for informal jogging. People’s movement brings energy to urban life while the city provides a sequence of places to ensure that people can move safely and comfortably. The essential concept is to introduce a small city system in this sports complex and make it become a public interior as an extension of urban life. A major entrance hall serves as a ‘square’ which is a gathering space for people to wait and communicate after sports. There are two main ‘streets’, the circulation space starts from this hall and links all the interior sports spaces and supporting facilities together. Besides different scales of interior spaces for sports activities, this sports center also provides common rooms for flexible use. Bridging together diverse programs promotes interaction between program components and urban life. The greater the variety of amenities, the more diverse groups of people will use the amenities. Fitting sport in an urban environment is more than just adding sports-related programs.

The aim of this thesis is to explore the application of Herman Hertzberger's core architectural theory ‘polyvalent space ‘in the actual design project. The design principle of ‘polyvalent space’ can be interpreted more thoroughly and reliably by studying the contents of his publications and analysing Centraal Beheer office Building. The first chapter refers to the theoretical elements shaping Hertzberger’s conception of ‘polyvalent space’ from four aspects: linguistic structuralism, architectural structuralism, the design theory of Aldo van Eyck and the Forum magazine. In the second chapter, the analysis of design proposals for the town halls of Valkenswaard and Amsterdam and Centraal Beheer company illustrates the formation of Centraal Beheer office building. The final chapter will focus on the analysis of Centraal Beheer office in terms of dynamic architectural functions, the fundamental structure of polyvalent space, the relationship between collective space and individual place, and inviting forms for users.