The new UBC Aquatic Centre is more than just a swimming pool: it?s a device for viewing the shifting architectural landscape at the University of British Columbia. Designed by MJMA with Acton Ostry Architects, it features a continuous ribbon of glass around the tessellated, all-white, sloped structure. Swimming in its 50-metre-long pool feels like being inside a giant oculus, where ?see and be seen? takes on new meaning: you are not just an end-user but also an active participant in the broader visual environment.
Inside, that competition pool is delineated from the family and recreational areas by a giant, translucent Barrisol screen. As I paddle along its north-south axis, framed views of the surrounding built environment unfold before me. Historical context is writ large?from the still-hand- some midcentury War Memorial Gym to the south, to the mid-90s Student Recreation Centre to the north, with the edges of adjacent new student housing under construction and even an Edwardian mansion further on the horizon, peeking through the eastern skyline. While the new 7,897-square-metre Aquatic Centre was designed to meet the needs of both UBC?s Olympian-level swim team and those of the burgeoning community of young families in the surrounding area, campus planners also envisioned it as a new anchor for the University Boulevard precinct, which is essentially the gateway to the campus.
The UBC Aquatic Centre. Photo by Shai Gil.
?Pools and rinks don?t get as much attention as impor...