In the Cockburn region’s Indigenous culture, wetlands and watering holes were traditionally places for people to gather. So, with its rapidly growing population as Western Australia’s urban sprawl reaches further and further from Perth, the City of Cockburn decided to create a brand new waterhole. They enlisted us and Melbourne architects dwp | suters to design the Cockburn Aquatic Recreation and Centre (ARC), one of the largest developments of its kind in Australia.

Employing more than 250 staff, the centre caters for thousands of residents from across Perth’s southern metropolitan corridor. The three-storey centre includes eight pools, an airconditioned six-court stadium for a range of sports, and a public health club with an extensive gym, group fitness studios, spin room and member lounge space. It is also home to the state of the art training facility of the Fremantle Dockers Football Club, and integrates shared community, function and meeting spaces.

The Cockburn ARC was named the Best Public Use Building (Over $20 million) at the 2017 Master Builders-Bankwest Excellence in Construction awards.

In 2018, the ARC celebrated its one millionth visitor, just 10 months after opening its doors.