Sunderland's Aquatic Centre
While the Olympic Delivery Authority quibble over the designs for the 2012 Aquatic Centre, perhaps they should look to Sunderland's new £25m Aquatic Centre for inspiration. TiC reports.
AS construction begins on the 2012 Olympic swimming pool in east London next summer, gold medal hopefuls will already be cutting the ripples at a brand new £25m aquatic centre in Sunderland.
Red Box Architecture has created an elegant design that matches a rigorous brief laid down by Sport England and the Amateur Swimming Association (ASA), which is also on track to receive a BREEAM rating of “excellent” when it opens in Apirl 2008.
One of the grandest features of the development is only hinted at from the outside. Shrouded behind an aluminium-shelled roof, the superstructure, with a clear span of 50m, consists of glulam beams supplied by Austrian supplier Wiehag, across the width of the pool.
“We’ve been working with the council on the project since 2004,” says Red Box principal and design and project architect, David Coundon. “We worked closely with them to satisfy their own ambitions as well as those of Sport England, the ASA, the local Regional Redevelopment Agency and the Urban Development Corporation.”
The glulam for the project, shipped over from Austrian timber supplier Wiehag, was met with full accreditation to certify it came from sustainable forests.
Red Box has previously used glulam on a new leisure facility for Sunderland Football Club, but Coundon says he was desperate to get his hands on a larger span structure.
Each of the glulam beams weigh up to several tonnes, measuring half the length of a football pitch.
The project relied on the expertise of specialist sub-contractors and main contractor Balfour Beatty to put the beams into place once they had arrived onsite.
Two cranes were brought in to hoist the beams into place above the pool infrastructure on the Stadium Park site next to Sunderland’s Football Club’s Stadium of Light.
“The overall stability relies on a lattice beam hung off these glulam beams, says Coundon. “So much of the structure has to be in place before the whole thing was stable.”
The building balances a number of design considerations, he adds. These include, diving height, natural light, conditioned air distribution and crucially, the 500 spectators’ sight line.
Once inside visitors and swimmers will be met with the exposed glulam beams, that will change colour and warm over time.
It seems ironic that a building in the north will be leading the way in sustainable construction, despite, the amount of money and focus being geared towards London and the surrounding areas.
But in less than five years’ time, the country will unite and come together for the 2012 Olympics. And when the gun sounds for the 50m-freestyle race at the Aquatic centre in Stratford, you can bet the UK’s Olympic hopefuls will be well trained.
