Micropolis Monday: City Swim Center

I really enjoy the idea of bold civic buildings and I love the architecture of athletics. Though a full stadium would be too big for my city, a big pool would be just about perfect.

front

I wanted to really make a statement, simple in form, but complex in detail. I think my spiky box achieves that nicely. I imagine the transparent light blue cladding as a complex surface of glass, with vents that can be opened and closed to control the climate inside. The top surface is more reflective, absorbing the sun with built-in solar panels and keeping the whole structure from turning into a hot house.

back

Twisting the whole building, even this slightly, means that it just barely fits on the block. The building is necessarily large, as I scaled it to just barely fit an Olympic size pool inside. To be honest, this building would need to be two or three times larger to fit any kind of serious Olympic swimming facility, but I still has a lovely mass to it.

plan

Seen from above, the building threatens to burst from the module (though it seems larger than it is due to perspective).

It is a simple design with a lot of repetition, but I’m happy with the subtle details that I’ve included. The translucent elements nearly glow as they are all backed with a second layer that gives them optical depth to refract light.

And with that, I am back on schedule with a model every week.

Keep building and enjoy!