Revisiting the past – Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield By: Collaborative Architecture Back in the days when I was a young, fresh-faced and newly qualified Architect with hair, a train of circumstances led me to being the sole Site Architect on this extremely prestigious project. I was lucky enough to take part in the original Architectural Competition for a new Olympic-sized swimming pool and diving, along with a host of other facilities for the World Student Games that were going to take place in the UK in 1991. We won.  And the office put together a series of design teams to tackle this huge project.  I was put in charge of the pool hall while other Architects were in charge of the entrance and central rotunda, and sports hall and car parking. It was a whirlwind of design activity.  This was going to be the first 50m Olympic-sized swimming pool in the UK in decades and we determined it had to be ‘fast’ and had to be a venue to break swimming records.  The FINA requirements for the length of the pool are unsurprisingly very onerous being between +0mm and -30mm over the 50m length of the pool. 30mm … Continue reading Ponds Forge International Sports Centre, Sheffield