This project was an exceptionally tight squeeze to physically fit the client’s brief onto the available site in Romford.
In fact, the client’s brief for a ‘standard’ size 60m x 30m ice rink plus 800 spectator seats just wouldn’t fit – the site was just too narrow and so the smaller ‘standard’ ice pad size of 56m x 26m was provided instead. This alone filled the site, never mind the rest of the client’s brief for a 6 lane 25m pool and associated changing and a large fitness gym and entrance hall café.
The design solution to this conundrum was to stack the facilities above each other with an entrance area and café, swimming pool, changing and plant at ground floor with a wrap-around fitness at the level above to create a double height void over the pool. The ice rink and spectator seats are on the upper level benefitting from natural daylight – unusual in an ice rink.
The whole building was conceived as a shimmering fractured ice cube representing the states of water from ice to liquid and to steam – with the poolside sauna and steam rooms.
Copyright 2020