Probably the oddest, and very possibly the most ‘character-building’ project John has ever worked on – the Hamdan Sports Complex was an invited International Architectural competition for a swimming facility for the World Swimming Championships 2010 to be held in Dubai.
The competition was won with a beautiful and very flexible design proposal but also in offering the client the world’s first fully-flexible 100m swimming pool. In time this rationalised into a series of more traditional facilities.
The project started life as a competition pool with 3000 spectators, designed as an oasis in the desert – literally to be built in the desert, next to a new by-pass road that was under construction. The Client’s Brief quickly morphed into 5000 spectator seats and then ultimately to two 50m pools, a unique back-to-back diving performance and training facility and 15,000 spectator seats.
Flexibility was key, and the pools were designed so the 3750 tonnes of pool water could be quickly pumped out into storage tanks beneath the energy centre so the pools could be converted to a dry sports floor for different activities to maximise the building’s usage.
The aquatics centre remains the go-to sports destination in the Middle East and has hosted many elite swimming and sports events.
Copyright 2020