Maintenance and operation of sports and recreation centres is a huge challenge for many cities and municipalities. In Aartselaar, the outdated swimming pool will be replaced with a new one. A building concept in which EQUANS installs sustainable technologies is an example for other projects.
A swimming bath operator must deal with many challenges, including limiting power consumption, following-up on quality, maintaining technical equipment, and guaranteeing users’ comfort. EQUANS has many years of experience and offers solutions for sports and recreation centres, including those for energy efficiency as well as the management and maintenance of technical equipment.
New sports infrastructure replaces outdated swimming pool
The municipalities of Aartselaar, Hemiksem, and Niel are collaborating on building a new swimming pool. The current swimming pool in the sports ground in Aartselaar is outdated and will be replaced by a new one in the autumn of 2021. On behalf of the inter-municipal cooperative society IGEAN, a new swimming pool will be built by the teams of EQUANS in collaboration with partners Strabag, Tractebel ENGIE, and LD-Architecten (architects). EQUANS is responsible for the coordination and implementation of the technologies, including water treatment, electrical systems, sanitary facilities, and HVAC. Strabag will handle the construction part of the project. Tractebel ENGIE will provide the design, stability study, the coordination of the Building Information Modelling (BIM), and safety. It is a Design & Build project, so the architects’ office LD-Architecten was engaged for the project.
Energy efficiency using sustainable technologies
The new swimming pool will receive high marks on the energy front thanks to the different sustainable technologies that will be used. For example, it is a building designed with a low energy rating (E42) that will be fitted with solar panels and LED lighting with daylight-based control. The E rating is a score that indicates the energy efficiency of a building. The lower the E rating, the more energy-efficient the building. Efficient water usage is also ensured thanks to their own production and the reuse of treated swimming pool water and rainwater.
An exemplary project
Work started on the site at the beginning of 2020 and the construction phase is still ongoing. The swimming pool building concept received the Construsoft BIM Award 2020 in the sports and recreation category for the models of the different disciplines. The project also received the Public Choice Award for 2020. BIM is the acronym for Building Information Modelling. In a BIM model, the designs for the different technical disciplines and technologies are mapped out into 3D models. The 3D models are then perfectly aligned with each other. This required a lot more work in the design phase given the scope and complexity of the pipe network for the swimming pool, but this was easily counterbalanced in the implementation phase.
