Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield
A Young Architect’s Big Break
Back in the days when I was a young, fresh-faced, and newly qualified Architect—with hair—a train of circumstances led me to become the sole Site Architect on this extremely prestigious project.
The Competition and Winning the Project
I was lucky enough to take part in the original Architectural Competition for a new Olympic-sized swimming pool and diving facility, along with a host of other amenities for the World Student Games, set to take place in the UK in 1991.
We won. The office then assembled a series of design teams to tackle this huge project. I was put in charge of the pool hall, while other Architects were responsible for the entrance and central rotunda, the sports hall, and the car parking.
Designing for Speed and Records
It was a whirlwind of design activity. This was going to be the first 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool in the UK in decades, and we were determined that it had to be ‘fast’—a venue where swimming records could be broken.
The FINA requirements for the length of the pool were unsurprisingly stringent: between +0mm and -30mm over the 50m length. A mere 30mm over could mean the difference between setting a World Record or not.
Key Design Decisions
A number of key design choices were made that still hold true today:
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The pool was designed to be 3m deep throughout to prevent swimmers’ ‘shock waves’ from bouncing back off the pool base, which would otherwise create extra drag and slow them down.
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Large floating floors were introduced at both ends of the pool to allow for adjustable depths, making the pool versatile for training sessions for kids and families.
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The pool width was set at 25m, accommodating 10 lanes of 2.5m each. Since competitive swimming events only use 8 lanes, the outer lanes (1 & 8) were left as buffers to prevent swimmers from being disadvantaged by shock waves reflecting off the pool walls.
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The pool was initially built to be 52.5m long between tiled surfaces. Two floating bulkheads were then installed at either end, allowing the pool length to be fine-tuned with laser measurements to ensure a precise 50.0000m length.
A Legacy of Records
The rest, of course, was down to the swimmers. If you look it up, Ponds Forge International Sports Centre in Sheffield has seen its fair share of World Records since the highly successful World Student Games of 1991.