Vaux Brewery Way, Aquatic Centre

Built in 2008, costing £20 million. This is the North East's first 50m pool, the only such facility between Leeds and Edinburgh. The building was designed by Redbox Architecture of Newcastle and built by Balfour Beatty. The pool is 25m wide so it can accommodate 10 lanes, which is the Olympic requirement. The only other pools which meet this standard are in Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow, Cardiff and the London 2012 Aquatic Centre. The floor is moveable so that depths can be adjusted for different users including those in wheelchairs. The main pool is home to the City of Sunderland Amateur Swimming Club. It can be divided into sections to allow flexible use. The building was chosen as host for the ASA National Championships in August 2010. The centre was used as a pre-Olympic training centre for the 2012 London Olympics. The building has 11 curved glulam roof beams, each spanning 52m across the pool. These glued laminated beams were sourced from managed sources in Austria. Rainwater from the roof is collected and recycled for use within the centre. The building is super-insulated to maximise energy usage. Lynn Pearson describes the Aquatic Centre as 'elegant, uncluttered and bathed in natural light'.