UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA AQUATIC CENTRE Vancouver / British Columbia / Canada
BACKGROUND The four square kilometre UBC Academic Campus is located within the larger University Endowment Lands, 10 km west of downtown on Vancouver’s Point Grey peninsula. The campus’s independence from the city paired with quickly expanding family, faculty, and student neighbourhoods has required it deliver its own municipal services including recreation centres.
STUDENT PRECINCT
CONTEXT
“HOW CAN THE NEW AQUATIC CENTRE EFFECTIVELY TRAIN OLYMPIANS, SERVE ITS COMMUNITY, AND ENHANCE THE STUDENT EXPERIENCE. HOW CAN IT OPERATE ‘LEARN-TO-SWIM’ PROGRAMS WHILE AT THE SAME TIME RUN A 1000 PERSON SWIM MEET?”
The Student Precinct is at the historic centre of campus and is the heart of student activities. Unchanged for 25 years, it provides student services, administrative, and recreational amenities, and is the primary transit destination. In 2012, UBC sent more swimmers to the London Olympic Summer Games than anywhere in Canada, and had the most successful swim team in the country. Meanwhile the explosive market-driven expansion of the Endowment Lands and burgeoning Campus Community has created the fastest growing youth and family population in the Lower Mainland. The new Aquatic Facility is required to meet the needs of both these groups; a high performance training /competition venue and a community aquatic centre within a single facility while engaging the Public Realm and contributing to Campus Life and the Student Experience.
COMPETITION
The new Aquatic Centre has both high performance and recreation and community activities taking place under the same roof. The vision of combining them into one facility really creates a unique aquatic environment where anyone can participate. We have Olympians training next to toddlers who are in a pool for the first time, and seniors or students who are taking part in programs. —— KAVIE TOOR DIRECTOR, FACILITIES & BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, ATHLETICS AND RECREATION UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
COMMUNITY
CAMPUS LIFE
CAMPUS PLANNING In parallel with the design of the Aquatic Centre, the Student Precinct has undergone a transformative planning exercise. The Precinct will be entirely reconfigured over the next 8 years as a series of phased and shifting puzzle pieces, tripling the built area and creating a transformed Student Zone — continuing to deliver services and enhance the student experience. At the centre of this transformation, the new Aquatic Centre defines the northern arrival façade of a new Transit Plaza receiving 50% of the student population on a daily basis. The Aquatic Centre is the first and last building students see commuting to campus – morning and evening. It opens diagonally to the outdoor social heart of the Student Precinct: McInnes Field, and frames a north-south pedestrian route through campus — ‘Athletes Way’.
APPROACH TO SITE The siting of the Aquatic Centre responds to the expanse of the transit plaza, the volume of student traffic and key pedestrian circulation and vehicular arrival on site. The facility works with the scale of its neighboring buildings to create defined Public Realm spaces on three sides: The South Facade of the new Aquatic Centre frames the space of the new Transit Plaza, providing shelter, views and terraced southern seating for commuters. The West Facade, canopy, and glazed corridor parallels a lush garden promenade of mature trees along ‘Athletes Way’. The North Facade creates a public viewing passageway and optional programmable exterior activity space.
SITE PLAN 1. AQUATIC CENTRE
6. BUS LOOP
2. TERRACE
7. MACINNES FIELD
3. STUDENT RECREATION CENTRE
8. STUDENT UNION BUILDING
4. FUTURE STUDENT HOUSING
9. ATHLETES WAY
5. EXTERIOR SEATING
8 9
CHANGE ROOMS CONCOURSE UNIVERSAL CHANGE ROOMS
17 18
SPECTATOR LOUNGE MECHANICAL PENTHOUSE
GROUND FLOOR PLAN 1. MAIN ENTRANCE 2. LOBBY 3. RECEPTION 4. POOL VIEWING 5. RETAIL 6. ADMIN STAFF 7. AQUATIC STAFF 8. CHANGEROOMS CONCOURSE 9. UNIVERSAL CHANGEROOMS 10. CHANGEROOMS 11. LAP POOL 12. LEISURE POOL 13. HYDROTHERAPY 14. COMPETITION POOL 15. WET CLASSROOM 16. POOL STORAGE
SUSTAINABLE DESIGN Water: A large three compartment cistern stores water from the roof and Transit Plaza. The building filters the top-up daily evaporative pool basin loss — up to 2” per day, store and reuse treated and conditioned pool water during annual basin maintenance shutdowns, provide grey water flushing, and integrate site landscaping. Air: Chloramine carrying air found just above the water’s surface is removed by delivering air from a central bench structure, scouring the water surface and returning within the upper portion of the perimeter pool gutters. Developed in coordination with on-campus doctoral research, this addresses Swimmer’s Asthma and achieves performance enhancing indoor air quality.
The air quality is great. The team was just at a meet where many of the swimmers were coughing and had trouble breathing. Here they got out of the pool and comment on how their breathing feels so good. —— TOM JOHNSON HEAD COACH OF SWIMMING CANADA’S SENIOR NATIONAL SWIM TEAM
Lighting: Continuous ceramic fritted glazing is placed on three sides of the Aquatic Hall in conjunction with a central skylight to bring controlled daylight diffusely throughout the plan. Sensors and zoned lighting control responds to natural lighting conditions. SKYLIGHT & TRANSLUCENT SCREEN
CISTERN
LEISURE POOL
COMPETITION POOL
MJMA & Acton Ostry Architects Copyright © 2017 by MJMA & Acton Ostry Architects. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Photography by Ema Peter and Shai Gil. www.mjma.ca