Cockburn Aquatic and Recreation Centre
SPORT AND RECREATION
CLIENT: City of Cockburn, Fremantle Dockers Football Club, Curtin University
LOCATION:
Cockburn Central, West Precinct, WA
PROJECT VALUE: $106M
COMPLETED: 2017
JV PARTNER: dwp
The City of Cockburn is a rapidly growing municipality in the outer southern region of the Perth metropolitan area. Developed via a process of community engagement, Cockburn ARC is a sport and recreation venue of immense scale that integrates elite sport, community and educational facilities. This visionary facility provides world-leading amenity to this largely greenfield community.
Our appointment to the project coincided with the rejection by local Councillors of the proposed precinct structure plan for this greenfield site. So, far from commencing the design process as per the prepared brief, we worked with the City of Cockburn to test site options, making a significant contribution to the endorsed precinct structure plan.
Working with a diverse stakeholder group including the City of Cockburn, the Fremantle Football Club and Curtin University, the project required extensive user consultation and the identification of opportunities for spatial efficiency via shared use.
Our design is heavily influenced by the area.
Our design for the facility is heavily influenced by the area’s Beeliar network of wetlands and waterholes, which for thousands of years have been gathering places for indigenous family groups, playing a significant role in forming the local culture and identity. These natural forms and this cultural role has inspired the design response.
The planning and relationships of spaces address the experiential ideas of the waterhole as a natural gathering place of recreation and community, where all ages can interact in close proximity, watching and learning from one another.
A key design feature is the internal ‘street’, connecting the northern and southern ends of the precinct, and allowing the public to navigate to and interact with all functions of the building from a central space. The civic nature of the building is accentuated by a triple height volume. Together with good quality natural daylighting and high quality materiality, this street gives the sense of a public square; a gathering space for all.
Aquatics is a major component of the complex, comprising eight pools including a 10 lane outdoor swimming and water polo pool, a 25 metre indoor pool, warm water program pool, leisure and recovery pools. Three large scale water slides establish a striking identity for the facility and give it landmark status.
“Throughout this project, Carabiner demonstrated an excellent understanding of the City’s and its project partners’ complex objectives in terms of the building’s purpose, desired customer experience, programming requirements, accessibility features and the local community’s aspirations. This understanding has been embedded throughout the building and interior design, creating one of Australia’s most visited leisure facilities and one that will have an evolving and lasting social impact on the local and surrounding communities for future generations.”
Brett McEwin
Manager, Cockburn ARC (2016 - 2021)
A 6-court indoor stadium provides facilities for numerous ball sports, as well as an indoor training facility for Australian Rules Football team, The Fremantle Dockers. The Dockers’ Elite Training and Administration Facilities set new standards for the team and other elite athletes who share the facilities. The fully equipped health club gymnasium has expansive views over both the pool hall and football oval.
Community components include a cafe and spaces for community meetings and functions. Educational components include a tenancy and consulting suites for Curtin University Sport Science and Physiotherapy students.
Limiting operational costs and environmental sustainability go hand-in-hand. Cockburn ARC uses ultra-fine filtration to reduce pool water consumption, geothermal energy to heat pool water in lieu of non-renewable energy sources, and has one of the largest photo-voltaic installations in the country on its roof.
Drawing from the wetland form, the design articulates subtle changes in level, views, and shelter from the elements.
The form and materiality of the building use textural changes to articulate the subtle transitions between land and water; the integration of landscaping, and use of resilient materials where the building meets the ground plane, blurs the transition between building and landscape.
Cockburn ARC is the recipient of various awards including:
• Master Builders Association 2017 - Winner for Best Public Use Building over $20m
• 2018 Australian Sport, Recreation & Play Industry Awards for Innovation - Winner New Facilities Category and Overall Winner Best Project
• Parks and Leisure Australia (WA) Community Facility of the Year Award 2018
• 2018 WA Australian Architecture Awards, finalist in the Public Architecture category