Splashpoint, Worthing

The brief for the new Aquarena was to deliver a destination leisure facility that replaced the existing tired Aquarena and provide a new and exciting architecture to act as an eastern ‘book-end’ to the active beach zone of Worthing.

The initial conceptual site strategy was to respond to the unique conditions of being between a busy road of small scaled buildings and the spectacular seafront, with open green space defining the western edge. Responding on one side to the fragmenting scale of the residences to the north practically rectilinear forms reflect the competition pool geometry and on the other end, opening up towards the sea, offering expansive views that form a freer geometry for the leisure pools.

These sinuous parallel curving lines echo the wind swept lines in the sand and extend towards the sea like the defensive groynes that run perpendicular to the seafront. These lines provide the primary spatial and structural spines of the pool hall roof form which fold down to form open ‘tubes’ of space that direct the occupants view. The fragmented shapes contextualise building, relating it to the massing of the surrounding developments, getting away from the traditional ‘municipal shed’ typology.

The building opened as ‘Splashpoint Leisure Centre’ in 2013, with WilkinsonEyre.