| Project Name: Darlaston Swimming Pool | ||||||||||||
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| Description: While an associate at Hodder Associates, Adrian Friend was responsible for leading the design of Darlaston Swimming pool in Walsall. The project, which won an RIBA Award, was funded by the Sports Lottery fund and played a key role in the regeneration of Darlaston, a town that was once the heart of manufacturing in the Black Country. The architecture is derived from the building’s hilltop setting and by the desire to bring daylight into all the public spaces. The building consists of three main elements: an elegant, soaring folded timber roof clad in stainless steel, a curved red brick wall which wraps around one side and a 30m entrance ramp routing the building in the landscape and facilitating disabled access. The folded timber roof encloses the pool hall and combined with the clerestorey glazing provides an open, light filled environment. The main 25 metre x 13 metre pool has seven lanes and is approved by the Amateur Swimming Association for competitions. Alongside it is a 13 metre x 7 metre instructional pool with full disabled access. The curved red brick wall houses the changes rooms, providing privacy and a sense of security whilst allowing light to enter from above. On the outside it orients visitors and guides them from the car park to the main entrance. Slot windows along the length of the wall offer natural surveillance of the car park from the heart of the centre. A red engineering brick was chosen to reflect the local industrial heritage and civic architecture. The entrance ramp in taking the visitor from street level to the hilltop main entrance, initiates a sequence of oblique views through the building intended to gradually reveal a composite picture of activities inside. Darlaston Swimming Pool funded by £4M from Sport England lottery money awarded in 1996 | ||||||||||||
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