© S+P Architects
sports & leisure facilities special report
33
Mark Smulian reports on Wycombe’s new hilltop leisure centre
A
s patrons swim, climb, play bowls, or use exercise bikes at the new Wycombe Leisure Centre, they will perhaps give little thought to how a complex
masterplan and financing arrangement lie behind the construction – achieved even in these hard times – of a new replacement for its obsolete predecessor. Leisure centres can present a problem for architects – how
does one make a distinctive design out of something which, when all is said and done, is an extremely large box in which sports and fitness activities are carried out? When Mike Lee was asked to design Wycombe District
Council’s new £25 million leisure he had to create something that would not be visually intrusive despite its site on top of a hill – and next to open country on one side – and which would fit in with as yet unconstructed buildings planned on adjacent sites. The leisure centre is part of the Handy Cross Hub
development complex, masterplanned by architect Richard Markland, which will eventually also comprise a hotel, 300,000 square feet of offices, a park and ride terminus, a Waitrose food store and a mid-rise multi-storey car park. Handy Cross is about one and a half miles from the centre
of High Wycombe close to the junction of the A404 with the M40.
It had housed an older leisure centre along with playing
fields and an athletics track. Lee, a partner in S+P Architects, recalls the first step was
to relocate these facilities to nearby sites and then design the new leisure centre so that the adjacent old one could remain operational during its construction phase. S+P was appointed as architect and lead designer for the
leisure centre and car park from inception to the appointment of a design and build contractor through the IESE framework. The firm then provided design services to and worked with contractor Willmott Dixon until completion. The leisure centre’s footprint is approximately 97x81 metres, with a gross floor area of 10,750 m2
. Inside it boasts a 12 court sports hall, an eight-lane 50
metres swimming pool with moving boom and floor, a learner pool, splash pad, health suite, 150 station fitness suite, a four rink indoor bowls hall, two squash courts, two dance studios, a 10 metre climbing wall and a cafe. This accommodation mix and brief was agreed after
consultation, through the council, with user groups, sports governing bodies and potential operators. The building uses a steel frame with concrete floors and a
flat steel roof. Concrete tanks were used in the swimming pool, while the ground floor is a ground bearing concrete slab Continued overleaf...
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