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Is it an especially Australian design response to
absorb views of the landscape into the pool area
and upstairs in the gymnasium and exercise rooms
rather than sealing away occupants?
I’m not sure if it was any love of the outdoors so much
as an opportunity to connect with the beautiful parkland
surrounds. We paid particular attention to building
orientation and placement of windows. The internal
connections were also critical as are the borrowed
views that lead to spaces beyond those. There are
framed views to the park for instance and from the
gymnasium a feature window to the old waterhole.
Was there the experience of a project where
you said ‘yes, this is the critical consideration
to the understanding of what makes these
facilities really tick?’
The Monash Aquatic Centre in Waverly, Melbourne
(2001) helped us realize what could be achieved with
such facilities. That project has such a strong shopfront presence to the main road and really explains
itself to passers-by. It satisfied all of the performance
and functional requirements in a very elegant way.
That was something we perhaps hadn’t fully had the
opportunity to fully grasp until then. That provided us
with a confidence and expertise to resolve projects of
this sort of complexity.
It’s an age in which you can be much more
emboldened with technology. Your glazing for
instance would never have worked until more
recently because the technology hadn’t caught up
to the ideas of architects and their clients.
That’s true. There’s certainly a diversity of products
available that are liberating and, ironically, sometimes
confusing. It’s really about matching the product to a
need. Certainly the windows beyond the immediate
pool have high performance glass. Many of the usual
concerns about solar performance and thermal
Cool Pool
separation have become far more challenging, but
on this project glass selection for the aquatic areas
involved a counter-intuitive approach. It is unlike most
buildings where code requires limiting solar heat gain.
For a pool hall though you don’t need that limi t. It’s
actually a benefit. You’re always trying to maintain the
internal temperature at a comfortable level and that
means solar heat gain is a benefit all-year-round and
so we were able to seek dispensation from the normal
code requirements to take a far simpler approach. That
makes a huge difference with cost and design flexibility.
The best sustainability solutions are presumably
intrinsic rather than after-thoughts or add-ons?
It’s an environment with real opportunities for energy
reduction and water saving targets with recent
advances in innovative sustainable aquatic design.
Initiatives such as heat and electrical power from
on site co-generation, efficient pre-coat pool water
filtration, highly insulated and fully sealed thermal
envelopes, and new air handling control systems are
integrated into the new building. These initiatives
combine to significantly reduce water loss and
condensation, lower evaporation rates, reduce energy
demand for air and water, and improve the air and
water quality for what is leading practice in sustainable
design for a sports and recreation facility in Australia.
It’s quite restrained externally and largely reserves
the wow factor for the inside.
The wow factor for us was always to be most fully
experienced inside. This really comes back to
our emphasis around the experience rather than
appearance. Of course there is the experience of the
approach, but the other important one is that hour, or
hour and a half, in the pool hall, gym or exercise class.
You divide up the money and direct it where it has
sustained and greatest impact.