architecture

National Aquatics Center Design Statement

 

Impacting the Sporting Community

 

The National Aquatics Center located in the City of Bangkok will positively impact the sporting community with a new state-of-the-art facility that will stand proud among aquatic centers globally. Located adjacent to the Rajamangala National Stadium and the Sports Authority of Thailand’s sports venue district, the National Aquatics Center will infuse new energy into this sports district elevating the local sporting community. Our design approach was established by creating connectivity across the site to the Rajamangala National Stadium, the Hua Mak Indoor Stadium and to the Sports Authority of Thailand’s eastern campus. Through the skillful and bold manipulation of site and form, we have elevated the sense of place and community within this important sports complex. We challenged ourselves to create a symbol for Thailand, with a timeless and provocative architecture that will serve the sporting and local community for generations to come.

 

A focus on the user experience and site orientation allowed for the creation of a central concrete core that spans from east to west across the site to create a northern competitive swimming complex and a southern family swimming complex. A main entrance galleria, located along the eastern edge of the site, provides for building entry at both the north and south edges of the building with a circulation spine that reveals the competitive and family swimming complexes, while also providing for separation between these crucial functions. It is this inherent separation created by the concrete core that allows the entire building to operate both simultaneously as well as independently. The core, which contains the vertical circulation system as well as a major part of the building’s program, also plays an important sustainability role in shielding the northern competitive swimming complex from the harsh southern exposure. An outdoor garden space placed below the rooftop dormitory zone, allows natural sunlight to enter the competitive swimming complex as well as act as another source of natural ventilation. The tension cable structured roof will also provide a medium for a photovoltaic array garnering energy from the sun that can be used throughout the venue. Located on the interior and below the cable structured roof is a ceiling screen, crafted in the natural Thai way, that will become a system to filter light, provide for artificial light and other building engineering systems as well as a membrane to add weight to the roof fabric thereby alleviating wind uplift.

It is the building’s concrete core that acts as the spine by which the Teflon fabric roofing system is draped over the swimming pool / seating areas in order to create a building form that is uniquely Thai, providing a soft light overhead while creating a breathable building along its edges. As the fabric roof connects at the highest points to the concrete core component, a system of louvers allows the great interior volumes to breath thereby eliminating the chimney affect so prevalent in longspan structures. Mediating between the scale of the longspan roof and the pedestrian environment, the façade is clad in a scalloped glass structural glazed system that allows natural air movement to penetrate the building while repelling the rainfall during inclement weather. The scalloped glass wall creates a unique inside/outside symbiosis between the building, the spectators and the public realm allowing users to see beyond to distant views over the entire sports complex while seated.

 

Along the northern edge of the site and threaded through the sculptural concrete columns is the exhibition space adjoining the public realm in between the swimming venue and the Hua Mak Indoor Stadium. The exhibition center creates an urban edge along the northern boundary and presents a public space that can be used year round irrespective of when swimming activities are in play.  

The power of simplicity is the force behind the design for the National Aquatics Center. To create an iconographic form standing proud among the various circular forms in the sports complex, is at the hand of maturity. The image of the National Aquatics Center is striking; whether seen from vantage points near or far. The National Aquatics Center offers a provocative and mature building form complimenting traditional Thai Architecture. The thin edges of the building’s extremities, including the core and roof’s perimeter, create a tautness along the building’s edges presenting a fine and delicate line indicative in Thai Architecture yet with a boldness of structure as illustrated in the sculptural concrete columns along the north face. With a rigor for precision and a design that is elegantly detailed to create a fineness to the discerning eye, the National Aquatics Center will stand the test of time and become an icon of modern Thai Architecture.

 

The design for the National Aquatics Center is driven by simplicity with respect for the local culture and to those that will inhabit this special place. It will elevate our understanding of an architecture that defines what it means to be “of its Time”, “of its Place” and “of its Patron”.