About The Project
Constructed on the site of the original 1850’s open air bath and wash house, the Victoria Leisure Centre was the result of a £7.5 million investment by Nottingham Council. Opening its doors in 2011, the centre combines a historic landmark with an optimised new hybrid structure.
Unable to restore the original building to anything like contemporary standards, the decision was reached to demolish part of the structure, whilst retaining the 1890’s clock tower to create an imposing entrance to the new state-of- the-art leisure facility. In doing this, around half of the site was freed up for valuable redevelopment whilst also creating an opportunity to replace the brick monolith with a community pool, café and fitness suite.
The Brief
Working alongside principle contractor Carillion, B&K Structures was responsible for the delivery of the design, supply and installation of the hybrid structure which was optimised both in terms of construction costs and performance. As its design involvement progressed, B&K Structures worked closely with London based architects, Levitate and structural engineering consultancy, Furness Partnership.
By carefully coordinating their proposals with English Heritage, B&K Structures was able to develop a steel and engineered timber frame structure to house a 25 metre, six lane swimming pool, children’s splash pool, 70 station gym, multi-function studio and steam rooms.
The Solution
Levitate Director, Spencer Guy explained the criteria that led to his practice’s decision to incorporate CLT into the project. He said: “We were conscious that the pool hall should have a warmth to it and because of the way that the ground levels worked, we wanted people in the public space to be able to look up into the roof and see that lovely honey colour."
“We started with the idea that we wanted the pool hall to be timber and as a practice, we prefer to have the fabric of the building in the material we are interested in using. We were familiar with cross laminated timber, having used it on many other projects, and tried to design out as much steelwork as possible from the roof of the pool hall.”
The traditional local authority swimming pool has castellated steel beams with a crinkly tin deck over the top and that surface is then perforated, dusty and inaccessible. We were therefore conscious of not wanting anything that could rust or need maintenance, and the CLT ticked all of those boxes. At one point the cross laminated timber panels were to be linked by steelwork, but with B&K Structures' guidance, we managed to take that out and opted for a grid of glulam beams supporting the CLT.
Spencer Guy
Director
Levitate Architects
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