‘The leisure centre had to look distinct enough among the housing but also be able to respond to the nearby country park’
going to be at the centre of the community,” explained Richard Weaving, senior building manager on the project for main contractor Willmott Dixon. The firm was recruited through the Scape framework and
novated the architects, GT+3 (formerly GT Architects), onto their construction team, but the specification continued to be tweaked. In search of inspiration, the council’s procurement team even went on a fact-finding mission across the country before setting a brief. “The client looked at leisure centres across the country
to see what was good and bad,” adds Mr Weaving. “They had very particular ideas, from the types of tiles to the width of the corridor. There was a leisure centre in St Albans where the corridor was too narrow for people coming off the pitches.” At the end of 2014, the first designs were unveiled and in
September 2015, Willmott Dixon started construction work. Once completed in February 2017, the leisure complex will provide a wide range of facilities. These include three indoor swimming pools – a teaching, intermediate and a larger eight-lane pool with moveable floor – as well as a sports hall, wet changing area, a 120-station gym, sauna and steam rooms and grass and 3G pitches. A major external design feature is the curved roof. GT+3
director Mark Gowridge said the architects had to “create a pavilion-type building in the park which sits well within the landscape setting, yet at the same time create an iconic building that delivers modern standard leisure facilities with great flexibility.”
Gowridge explained: “The building has been designed as
three interlocking pavilions. The two sweeping curved roofs accommodate the pool hall and the sports hall and the fitness suite and climbing wall sits in between the two wings. The curved roofs frame this central space and help advertise it. He added: “The pool hall and the sports hall are large box
spaces and we wanted to curve the roof to slope and flow into the landscape and reduce the impact and feel of the building’s height. The copper colour of the roof helps to seamlessly blend the roof form into the contoured landscape and creates the iconic language to the building.”
Design specifications
The roof was designed to achieve a column-free environment through the specification of a standing seam design, which comprises a structural steel frame that has been manufactured and supplied by Condor Allslade. The pool hall has a tied arch roof with aluminium
perforated acoustic deck and a suspended timber ceiling. The ceiling is a Corogrid bar and bracket/acoustic deck system, which is similar to the Thermohalter system but slightly deeper in construction design and can offer clear spans of up to 9 m – making it ideal for a sports hall. The standing seam roof sheets are weathered copper
and supplied by Rigi Systems, with the sheets sent through a curving machine to form the profile, seams and curves. An acoustic insulation slab was installed after the deck
and top hats before the Corogrid bar and brackets. A vapour control system runs over the side of the roof lapping around the galvanised flashing and behind the cladding. The roof ’s “flowing” design created a challenge for the
construction team in getting the levels correct to form the desired effect.
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