Winning Green Square Aquatic Centre design brings a beach to central Sydney

A design which includes four different pools, a park and a sports field has won the international competition to build Sydney's largest aquatic centre since the 2000 Olympics.

The four different pools include an outdoor 50-metre pool - transformed from a rectangular shape into a free form pool - a hydrotherapy pool, a 25-metre indoor pool for swimming lessons and squads, and a large children's leisure pool with beach entry. The facility will also include a fitness centre while a boardwalk will connect the pools with an adjacent park and sports fields.

Sydney-based Andrew Burges Architects was chosen from a shortlist of five finalists and 144 other entries in the City of Sydney competition to build a new aquatic centre and park at Green Square, four kilometres from the Sydney CBD.

Burges' design was the clear winner chosen by a jury of leading Australian architects.

Commenting on the win, Burges told the ABC "you have to have a big idea in these competitions and I guess we felt that by making the idea of the coastal pools as a way of thinking about how we could do urban aquatic centres as a sort of inspiration, I think captured the imagination of the jury."

In terms of the design, Burges added "I think our idea was really trying to almost graft some of the elements of the beach and coastal pools into a much more urban situation, so we just felt that as an idea would create a much broader community appeal to the pool, so it wasn't just for fitness fanatics or people swimming laps."

Construction on the aquatic centre will start in January 2017 once major drainage work is carried out on the site. It should be completed by 2019.

Green Square is Australia’s biggest urban development and one of Sydney’s fastest growing and communities, with 40,000 residents and 22,000 workers expected to live and work in the area.

The new aquatic centre, park, sportsfields and a library are planned to be at the heart of this growing community.

Images (courtesy of the City of Sydney) show artist's impressions of:
Top: The planned 50 metre pool.
Middle: The planned deck outside the fitness centre. 
Bottom: The planned indoor 25 metre pool.

17th June 2014 - NEW AQUATIC CENTRE PUTS HEART INTO SOUTH SYDNEY’S GREEN SQUARE