ARCHITECT’S FOCUS
Timber roof cassettes improve the acoustics and look decorative in both the swimming pool and the fi tness studios TOP OF THE PODS
S&P Architects’ Ron Wallwork explains why The Pods, which opened in Scunthorpe last year, is a truly innovative example of leisure centre design
How did you get involved with the North Lincolnshire Sports Academy – or the Pods, as it’s more commonly known? Designer Andrew Wright won the RIBA competition set by NLC and Yorkshire Forward in 2006. He had teamed up with Buro Happold for their structural expertise, us at S&P for our knowl- edge of sport and leisure buildings and Grant Associates for their landscaping skills. However, at the planning stage Andrew Wright Associates withdrew from the project, and so we took the lead to deliver the building.
What was your brief? North Lincolnshire Council, together with the regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, wanted an iconic building that would help to regener- ate the Central Park area in Scunthorpe and open it up to visitors.
There was backing for a very progres- sive leisure centre design – they were certainly looking for something much better than the standard crinkly tin shed.
What was the inspiration for the design? Andrew Wright’s design consisted of a
THE TEAM
Architect: S&P Architects Concept Designer: Andrew Wright Associates Construction: Bowmer and Kirkland Structural engineering: Buro Happold Landscape Architects: Grant Associates: Cost of complete project: £21m Funded by: North Lincolnshire Council, with contributions from Yorkshire Forward (£8M) and Sport England (£750,000)
series of interconnecting domes – using similar organic construc- tion forms to the Eden Project in Cornwall – to create a building that would form itself out of the landscape in a very natural and organic way.
It was designed to be an environmentally-friendly building that brought together both leisure and wellness concepts within the natural forms of the building.
46 Read Sports Management online
sportsmanagement.co.uk/digital
How would you define a 21st century sports centre? You have to create a socially-responsible building that gives the community something that they can really value and that they want to visit. They should not be overpowering or noisy places – as many have been in the past. They should have a much more natural, tranquil feel, in line with the growing market for more esoteric pursuits such as meditation and yoga and the focus on individual wellness. We had a very creative brief for the Pods and in many ways
it’s a one-off building – but at the same time the design reflects very much the way things are going.
Can you describe some of the technical innovations used? This type of building would not have been possible 10 years ago. It’s one of the first leisure buildings in the UK to be built us- ing a free-form geodesic design, where the structure is formed from connecting glulam (glued composite timber) beams to form an irregular triangular shell grid. It’s inspired by the structure and connectivity of soap bubbles.
The structure uses steel cylindrical nodes with a number of metal plates set at dif- ferent angles to receive the beams, which
are all of different lengths. It was possible structurally with ad- vanced computer technology now available to calculate all the forces from the model and for that information to be readily transferable from CAD (design) to CAM (manufacture). This al- lowed great freedom to explore all the exciting 3D possibilities. We were able to create interlaced domes exceeding 50m spans, with the building area exceeding 5000sq m.
Issue 4 2012 © cybertrek 2012
PHOTO: S&P ARCHITECTS
PHOTO: S&P ARCHITECTS
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84