Atlas Tube Centre & WFCU Pools

A retreat from urban life
The WFCU Centre Community Pool is a part of the larger, 100-acre Atlas Tube Centre that provides wellness and cultural facilities for a growing residential population. The aquatic center is designed as a park pavilion, establishing garden courtyards to the east and north, and allows for access to a sun terrace and splash pad to the south. A broad overhang on the east side forms a sheltered public verandah, allowing parents to watch soccer games from a weather-protected patio.

Letting the light in
Providing full panoramic park views of the surrounding fields — while allowing for safe, glare-free natural lighting — led to a building section that pairs perimeter tinted glass with linear skylight slots to provide soft, balanced, gallery-quality light. This quality level is matched with a high-performance acoustic configuration. Corrugated, perforated aluminum wall panels and a slatted cedar ceiling cover high-absorption insulation panels for a calm, quiet pool experience.

Universal inclusion
The new facility is fully accessible. Along with smaller gender-specific change rooms, a central gender-neutral universal change room is fully transparent to the pool deck and entrance corridor. The lap pool and therapy pools feature accessible ramps, while the splash pad is accessed via a zero-depth-entry beach.

Love this project? New in 2017, Athletic Business is inviting readers to vote for their favorite Aquatic Design Portfolio project to be honored with our first ever "Readers Choice" award! Voting will end February 28--look for the winner in our April issue! Vote for this project, or check out the competition.