Architect gives preview of Sunderland Aquatic Centre

11 January 2008

The City of Sunderland will soon have two of the country’s top sporting facilities.  The Stadium of Light is already established as one of the best football grounds.  It has staged England internationals and is almost certain to be used if the World Cup comes here in 2018.

Rapidly taking shape next to the stadium is the £20 million Sunderland Aquatic Centre which will house the North-East’s first Olympic-sized swimming pool. It has been designed by the Red Box Design Group on behalf of Sunderland City Council.

Cllr Mel Speding, Sunderland City Council's Cabinet Member for Culture and Community Services, said: "It is going to be the biggest facility between Leeds and Edinburgh. The Sunderland Aquatic Centre is going to be very important for the region, but also the City as well.  It will be of obvious benefit to elite swimmers, but above all it is going to be a venue where people can come and enjoy swimming and exercise."

Alan J Smith OBE, Chairman of the Red Box Design Group, said: “This is a very important development for the City of Sunderland and the whole region. It will promote exercise and a healthy lifestyle for local people and help the region’s young swimmers to become champions.”

The elegant centre has been designed by one of the country’s leading pool designers, David Coundon.  David, the Project Architect and Principal of Red Box Architecture said:”Football grounds are almost like cathedrals of our age.  Whether we like it or not they have become landmarks that dominate any city.  Quite rightly people have a lot of pride in them.  So it was a very difficult balance: the pool had to be big enough and dramatic enough to stand its ground next to the stadium, but the stadium ultimately had to be the dominant feature.”

The centre will contain the only 50 metre pool tank between Leeds and Edinburgh. In addition the Centre will contain a 25m multi-purpose pool with springboards and diving platforms. There will be seating for 500 spectators.  It has already been earmarked as a training centre for swimmers competing in the 2012 Olympic Games and will stage high profile national and regional competitions. The pool contains many unique design features.   For example, every single raindrop which falls on the building’s roof will be collected, filtered and used in the pool.

Everything to do with the pool is on a grand scale.  Its construction has required 5100 cubic metres of concrete and a staggering 225,483 tiles.  Supporting the roof structure are 11 huge timber beams.  Each of them weighs several tonnes and measures half the length of a football pitch.

Both the main pool and multi-purpose pool have moveable floors that allow their depths to be varied so that they can accommodate a range of activities (from aqua aerobics to water polo) and allow swimmers at all levels to use them.  The main pool also has a moveable boom which can be used to alter its length or sub-divide it, allowing more than one group of swimmers to use it at the same time.

Following his latest visit to check how work is progressing on the Sunderland Aquatic Centre, Cllr Mel Speding said: “I would use that American word “awesome” to describe it.  Even at this stage it is stunning. It’s the biggest pool between Leeds and Edinburgh and it will be a major asset for the City and the whole of the region when it is finished, creating world class facilities for local communities to enjoy with an innovative design that accommodates grass roots participation to future Olympic champions. Of course it will be of great benefit to the elite and talented swimmers.  But above all it is a community centre which will encourage local people to have an active and healthy lifestyle.”

In addition, the centre will house a state-of-the-art Wellness Centre which Sunderland City Council, in partnership with the Sunderland Teaching Primary Care Trust, which is designed to help improve their health and well-being through the provision of physical activity opportunities, lifestyle advice and education.

The centre has also been designed to achieve the highest possible accreditation under BREEAM (British Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method).  This is only awarded to buildings that have taken into account their environmental impact in terms of design during construction and long-term use.

The timber roof beams came from managed forests in Austria.  The pool also has a “super insulated external fabric” and a combined heat and power unit to maximise efficient energy use and minimise energy waste.

David Coundon of Red Box is one of the UK’s most experienced pool designers and his CV includes an impressive range of swimming facilities such as Manchester Commonwealth Pool, Nottingham University Pool, Ryedale Leisure Pool and Inverness Aquatic Centre.

“This is a fantastic project to work on,” he said.  “Not only because of its size and importance but also because we are trying to take the concept of sustainability to the next level.  Due to the requirement to heat such large volumes of water and air pools do not have a reputation for being environmentally-friendly, but this one will set the new ‘sustainability standard’. We have introduced a whole range of measures to achieve this but I suppose most attention will go on the use of rainwater harvesting.  Other pools have used rainwater for showers and toilets, but nobody has re-used it for the pool’s water itself.”

The project has been funded by Sunderland City Council, Sport England, European Regional Development Fund, One North East, TyneWear Partnership, Sunderland arc and the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund.