Location: Vancouver, BC
Architect: MacLennan Jaunkalns Miller Architects Ltd. (MJMA) & Acton Ostry Architects Inc.
Date of Completion: 2016

OAA Design Excellence Awards Finalist

The iconic new Aquatic Centre is a fulfilment of the University of British Columbia’s (UBC’s) commitment to its students, elite athletes and community at large. The project creates a new pedestrian precinct, connecting existing athletic venues and a new outdoor field. The 85,000-square-foot facility includes a 51-metre pool, 25-metre pool, leisure pool, hot tub, steam room, sauna, view decks and spectator areas, change rooms, meeting rooms, wet rooms and concessions.

Site plan
Drawing and Photo Credit: MJMA & Acton Ostry Architects Inc.

Plan and section.
Drawing and Photo Credit: MJMA & Acton Ostry Architects Inc. 

View from Student Laneway
Photo Credit: Ema Peter 

The co-program combines elite Olympic-level training requirements with daily community use. Features include the Y-shaped columns and continuous skylight bisecting the building. A translucent screen divides the section where sunlight floods into the leisure side while providing required controlled-lighting conditions to the competitive training side.

Lobby and change room entrance
Photo Credit: Ema Peter 

25m leisure pool.
Photo Credit: Ema Peter 

Aquatics hall.
Photo Credit: Ema Peter 

The facility pursues ‘regenerative neighbourhood’ goals by integrating with new campus infrastructure developments. A three-compartment cistern stores water from the roof and adjacent transit plaza, providing greywater flushing and supplying the site-irrigation system. Chloramine-contaminated air is scoured from the water surface by an airflow delivered from the central bench structure and returned within the upper edge of the perimeter pool gutter. Sensors and zoned lighting respond to natural lighting conditions.

View of universal change rooms from pool.
Photo Credit: Ema Peter 

Universal change room.
Photo Credit: Ema Peter 

Exterior elevation.
Photo Credit: Ema Peter 

The Aquatic Centre is a gateway building that fronts the newly designed Transit Arrival Plaza—an arrival/departure point for half of UBC’s students on campus. The combined three program requirements made its site accessible, open and engaging to all. It is located in one of the fastest-growing communities in the B.C. Lower Mainland for families and students.