Client: South Gloucester County Councilarchitect: Fielden Clegg Bradley StudiosLocation: Bristol
Date: 2007-06-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTCTags: Bristol, sports, timber
Longwell Green Pool
A Ramboll project
Longwell Green Leisure centre is a six lane 25m long swimming pool, family pool and fitness centre located on the outskirts of Bristol, south west England. Sustainable materials were used throughout the building with the structural frame comprising prefabricated timber cassettes for the walls and Glulam timber and plywood panels for a long span roof over the main pool. Extensive use of natural daylight and a low level continuous glazed window allows a strong visual connection with the surrounding landscape towards Bath. The long span roof was a particular challenge. In order to keep the depth as slim as possible and to speed erection on site the structural elements were prefabricated as 2.4m wide panels from a ply timber and Glulam timber composite where the lower plywood panels act as tension elements within the overall system, the Glulam members in compression. This approach also limited the volume of material used in the building frame. Extensive research into the behaviour of stainless steel fixings in a swimming pool environment was part of our role on the project.