Sunderland Aquatic Center ExampleCasestudy

Sunderland Aquatic Centre Swimming pool with glulam roof structure

Project Information

Introduction

Building description

Comp Co mple leti tion on da date te:: 20 2008 08

The £19.8 million Aquatic Centre, the largest in the North East, is the first phase of a development of sport and educational facilities for Sunderland. The 50 metre pool, together with its diving pool and Wellness Centre, is the only facility of its type between Leeds and Edinburgh. The building is on a site formerly occupied by a part of Sunderland’ss past, the Monkwearmouth Sunderland’ Colliery,, and stands next to the Sunderland Colliery football stadium. It is designed to act as a regional hub for swimming events – performance swimming, diving, synchronised swimming and water polo - as well as attracting national and regional events to Sunderland; it will also act as a community pool, providing facilities for local schools and fostering young talent. The state-of-the-art Wellness Centre will, it is hoped, increase participation in exercise and, through support and learning, encourage the community to choose a healthy lifestyle.

The building houses a 50 metre competition pool, 25m wide with 10 lanes, a moveable floor and a moveable boom; a 25m multipurpose diving tank with moveable floor and a variety of double-width diving boards; seating for 500 spectators and a wide variety of changing facilities to meet the needs of disabled and other groups with specific needs.

Building type:

Swimming pool

Location:

Sunderland, Tyne and Wear

Client:

Sunderland City Council

Architect:

Red Bo Box Ar Architecture

Main Ma in Con Contr trac acto tor: r:

Arup Arup (Newcastle upon Tyne)

Installer Insta ller of timber: Balfo Balfour ur Beatty Constru Construction ction LVL supplier;

Wiehag (A (Au ustria)

Timb Ti mber er ele eleme ment nt::

Glul Gl ulam am tim timbe berr beams beams

Timb Ti mbe er spe speci cie es:

Spru Sp ruce ce

In shape the building is a low, flattened tube with a ‘super-insulated roof of standing seam aluminium cladding and sitting on a plinth of coloured, glazed blockwork. It tucks in against the north side of the football stadium, separated from it by a tree-lined access road. At one end of the tube is a two-storey glass box which serves as the entrance to the pools and to the Wellness Centre which takes the form of a curved ‘pod’ clad with render and loosely attached to the main building. The shape of the pool was created by using curved laminated timber beams which span over 50 metres across the pool width and the seating areas, providing the preferred shape for the circulation of air around the pool hall. This helps avoid condensation and removes any air-borne chemicals from the water surface and away from swimmers. The beams contribute to the sustainability of the building and support the aluminium roof form. [Continued page 4]

Case Study | Sunderland Aquatic Centre

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Building description (cont’d) The glued laminated (glulam) frame is exposed on the inside and is reflected in the ovoid external building shell by ‘ribs’ on the exterior which serve the purpose of concealing the flexible rain water pipes that help to collect the roof rain water. This subsequently goes into the water harvesting system and reduces the quantity of mains water used in the pools. The long bullet style windows of the pool hall have been made possible due to the orientation and location of the building adjacent to the Stadium. Normally large areas of glazing are avoided due to safety concerns about glare on the pool surfaces causing difficulties for the life guards monitoring the pool waters.

Structural engineer’s account

The huge glulam beams are craned into position.

The structural design of the roof of the Sunderland Aquatic Centre was a response to the architect’s concept. The structure had to span 50m to cross the 25m width of the swimming pool together with the spectator and competitor seating on either side. The design had to balance a number of considerations including the height of the diving boards, natural light, conditioned air distribution and crucially, provide a clear sight line for the 500 spectators. The initial structural concept for the roof was for a three pinned arch, but d ue to the building shape as it developed, the frames could not act as a pure arch. The final roof structure consisted of straight beams which inclined from apex to eaves and then curved around the eaves to the base supports, which lie at the back of the spectator seating. This meant that the frame started to work more as a portal frame with large bending moments around the eaves. The large forces at the eaves were the key determinant for the size of the frames and resulted in a glulam section at this point of 2m deep by 440mm wide.

The beams are connected at the apex.

The frames were split into four parts for delivery and erection - two curved sections and two straight parts. The splice between the curved and straight sections had to transfer a design moment of 2500 kNm. Wiehag developed a hidden connection to transmit the large forces involved. The curved sections of glulam have a radius of 3m which led to very thin 16mm laminations relative to the 35mm laminations that were used on the straight sections. [Continued page 6]

A steel frame runs between the glulams to give lateral stability and support to the roof cladding. Case Study | Sunderland Aquatic Centre

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The new pool is the largest in the North East

Cross section

Isometric views


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Structural engineer’s account (cont’d) As the bending forces dropped quite quickly away from the curved section of the frame and axial force predominated in the straight sections, it was possible to reduce both the width and the depth of the glulam section the straight sections are halved in width to 220mm. In the final design the central apex pin was removed to simplify the structure but the two base connections remained true pinned joints. The central apexes of the glulam beams are not visible in the finished structure; they are enclosed in a suspended glazed roof lantern which runs above the pool. A structural steelwork frame between the glulam beams provides lateral stability and intermediate support to the roof cladding. The installation was carried out using mobile cranes with the four parts of each frame being lifted in individually and held in place temporarily by a combination of the cranes and temporary stays.

Sustainability With a ‘super-insulated’ external fabric and a combined heat and power unit to maximise efficient energy use and minimise energy waste, the pool is the first 50 metre pool to achieve a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating. The timber beams were sourced from managed forests in Austria and a palette of other ‘Green Guide’ materials were used throughout the building. Rainwater falling on the roof is harvested, filtered, treated and used for the pools, reducing the overall use of mains water.

At the base, each glulam beam is flitched to a massive steel plate connector.

Detailed part cross section

1 2 5

1. CHS frame gives lateral stability and intermediate roof support 2. ‘Super-insulated’ roof cladding with standing seam aluminium sheet 3. Glulam beam flitched to steel forked connector

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4. Glazed block plinth 5. Curved glulam beam tapering above eaves

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6. Spectator seating 4


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A night view of the pool in use.

The base supports to the glulam beams are set behind the spectator seating.


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Photos: Pages 1, 5,6 and 7: Critical Tortoise, Page 4: Nils Clemmetson, Arup


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Sunderland Aquatic Center ExampleCasestudy

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