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Research From Books and Magazines

OBJEKT Magazine. No. 56, Living in Style

Supernova ' The Spirit of Water'

This range is from a Bathroom Design Company called  Dornbracht. It is a great example of how designers can work with water and refelection and light within an interior and make something normal, become something beautiful. Bath time is a time for relaxation and reflection and these designers have definitly mastered ways in which they can intensify the user experience. They have made use of alot of lines and modern edges to create a very free flowing environment which I find, could be quite hard to do.

Golf House in Tres Vidas, Acapulco

This Building consists of concrete blocks, organised in such a way that combines the outdoor, and indoor elements together. This building also combines social areas and private areas. It has a pool which stretches out and then becomes a pond. I find it extrememly innovative and modern. It was Designed by Architect Inaki Echeverria and his team, who are made up of Pool Designers, Artists, Wood Designers, Furniture Designers and more. This is definitly an amazing peice of design and although in normal circumstances concrete is seen as ugly and industrial, in this case, the way in which it has been sculpted into the landscape, embrasing it, and coming part of it, it is rather beautiful.

James Cassebere, The Spacial Uncanny, Sean Kelly Gallery, 2001, Charta, Milano.

Jame Cassabere demonstrates the importance of light within a space. Light can affect a space in many ways. Light can make a place display a mood and bring character to an otherwise, boring, empty space. Reflection can cause light to intensify. James Cassabere has found ways to show this in an eerie sort of way. I find these images quite morbid but also quite interesting.

My Sketches

 

The Play and Leisure Implementation Plan - March 2011

http://www.northernireland.gov.uk/index/media-centre/executive-publications/the-play-and-leisure-implementation-plan.htm

The Play and Leisure Implementation Plan aims to see a high value placed on play and improved play and leisure facilities for all children and young people in order to support their development, enjoyment and growth. OFMDFM carried out extensive consultation on the plan, including several events for young people.
The Plan states that its Actions include ensuring that the principles of children and young person friendly design are considered and integrated into any future review of the relevant planning policy statements. Basically, this means that when designing leisure facilities, and im my case, swimming pools, I must consider the wants and needs of young people and families. This is what I have based my design project on and so I personally won't have a problem with this. However, I am very glad to see that the problems I have found with public swimming pool facilities have also been taken into account by the government and that they are taking measures to improve facilities for families.
Another of the plans Actions is premoting the use of child friendly, accessible evaluation tools within public spaces to determine satisfaction levels and identify ways of making public spaces more welcoming to children and young people. In other words my pool must be easily accessed by children and the environment must make children feel comfortable and confident. Surveys could be carried out in order to try and narrow down what is needed and what is not and if there are any luxery accessories that could be added.
Another Action is to encourage beneficial health aspects of play and leisure. We all know that swimming is extremely good exercise, in fact, one of the best methods of exercise. Swimming practically works every muscle in your body, it can improve body strength and cardiovalascular fitness and endurance. It is extremely good for your heart and lungs and causes less strain on joints and muscles than running or other exercises. Aswell as all the physical benefits, there are many physcological benefits too. Swimming can be very relaxing and theraputic and people find it is a nice time to be alone with yourself and your thoughts.

Slight Change in Direction

I had planned on completely re-designing the entire space within the pool area of a swimming pool. Due to problems with getting my hands on existing plans and also feeling like I may be taking on too much, I have decided to redesign the pool space and not the actual entire room. I will still be able to make use of all of my current ideas such as space, lighting, reflection, glass, water features and even the under ground pool idea. I will look at local pools and find out the dimensions of the pool which won't be too hard as pools are generally all roughly the same sizes. I will continue to look at how to make the most of the space within the pools and also still look at ways in which the pool can be divided into seperate areas.

 

Above are some examples of similar things people have done before. Hopefully this will give you an Idea of what my intensions.

Look at ways in which pools can be divided up whilst making the most of the space. I have already established that in most leisure centres the shallow pools are alot smaller than the deep pools. I want to make the family areas larger and include more features. I may divide the pool up into many sections for different ages of people. I would like to have private areas for young babies and their parents so that they are not frightened by the older children or adults. I would also like to have private areas for professional swimmers so that children and other swimmers are not blocking their way or disrupting their training. This many not necessarily mean putting up walls and barriers between them, it may just be a case of seperating out the areas so that some categories of people can have a  bit of personal space away from the crowds.

Swimming Pool Designers

I have looked at more Swimming Pool Designs over the past few weeks than I could ever count, however, I have been particularly drawn to ideas that are different and innovative. I want to create a pool design which is for families and so it needs to be user friendly, however, being a designer, I want to create something that is in itself a peice of Art. I would like the design to become a sort of attraction, therefore encouraging people from all backgrounds to come and check out the facilities.

This pool is in a hotel, which used to be a water purifying centre and so purity is a leading factor in this design. It was designed by architects Ricardo Legorreta and his son. 

This pool, which is actually not a pool at all, can be found at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa. It looks like a pool and has the shape and characteristics of a pool but in actual fact it is just a concrete room with a sheet of glass on top. Water is poured over the glass to give the illusion of being underwater and light does the rest.

I am particularly interested in the above peices because I have the idea of creating a shallow pool under the ground. I figure that in the majority of leisure centres there are a shallow pool and a deep pool. The ground must be deep enough in order to build the deep pool and with this in mind, I was thinking that under the shallow pool there is another level of ground which is generally never in use. This opens up alot of design possibilities and I am genuinly suprised I havent come across anyone with a similar idea.

Here are some plans I found online, I have briefly edited them on photoshop to show the sort of thing I am thinking of.

I have also become very interested in using alot of glass and transparency in my swimming pool design. I am sure this is pretty clear when looking at some of the images I have put up and so I'd like to look at this in more detail.

This Pool is in W Hotel, Miami.

By Sail Kapal.

The Z Oceans Hotel, South Beach, Miami.

hometrenddesign.com

 

Family User Friendly Pools

"Families hold the key to the success of public swimming pools, a recent report has confirmed. The research, undertaken by leading interactive play supplier, Hippo Leisure, warns that leisure pools that do not provide for the family market will lose out to those centres that are more willing to invest."

"Hippo was not surprised that 100% of managers stated that families are the main users of leisure centre swimming pools thus generating the largest amount of income. Senior citizens, students, swim clubs and disabled groups only accounted for a small proportion of the customer base of leisure centres."

(Taken from http://www.poolandspascene.com/news/the-family-factor)

Looking at the above research and comparing it to the existing pools in Derry, it is very clear to see that there is a problem. Alot of the local Leisure Centres have a very large pool for experienced and professional swimmers and a very small pool for learners and children. I do not feel that it has been taken into account that it is not only children that occupy these more shallow pools. It is entire families and also adults who either cannot swim and/or are disabled. In my own experience I feel that when I take my child to the pool, there is not enough room in the shallow pool and the deeper pool is nearly empty. Where is the sense in that?

Also there are no permanent play features such as slides etc put in place in two out of three pools in Derry. These leisure centres are not reaching their full potential. Public Sector departments opperate solely to provide a service to the public and in not catering to the needs of children and families I feel they are abononing their duties. Never mind missing out on a larger consumer base as customer satisfaction is not being acheieved and ultimately the public sector is loosing out on alot of potential profit.

As I am designing a family friendly pool I would like to include some interesting swimming pool features which will be fun and also attrative and also educational. I am going to look at other ways in which people have added sensory play features for children and also ways in which I can improve confidence in pools.

These ideas are very interesting. I would like to look the ways in some of these products have been designed and use my own technique. I am not a big fan of 'Themes' I find that quite kitch. I also find that colour can be over used and through general wear and tear will fade easily. And so I am going to try and find a way of including the fun factor, but also in a way which compliments the entire space and not just the childrens area. I will make use of more neutral and calming colours, however still premoting a family welcoming, fun packed, environment.

http://www.hippoleisure.com/Interactive_Swimming/Sensory_Play_Panels.php

Further to this I would like to have a look at Water Features such as fountains that people have designed. Any type of feature created with water in mind will be a useful research tool in my design process as I feel they may also generate some design ideas.

Bellagio Fountain

Nine Floating Fountains

ChristChurch Dandilion Fountain

Trafalgar Square Fountains

This Image, and the next two, are features from a company called Blowzone. I like the way these have been greated with glass, lighting and water, these are the sorts of things I would be interesting in looking into in more detail.

I am quite interesting in making use of alot of glass and transparent surfaces in my designs and it is interesting to see the different effects that other people have acheived.

This peice is very fun and i like the thought of having objects in and among the glass. I want to make use of a few glass/transparent/translucent walls and was thinking that it may be a bit of a danger incase of swimmers not seeing it and colloding with it. This could be a way to prevent such things from happening.

I love the use of lighting and reflection in this peice.There is a good use of colour also, it sort of looks natural in a way.