Vancouver Aquatic Centre

Pursuing North America’s highest-performing aquatic centre through a design that honours and reflects the deep history of its shoreline site. Located in one of Canada’s densest neighbourhoods on a prominent site along Vancouver’s English Bay waterfront — beloved for its sweeping beaches, ocean views and popular seawall trail — the project seeks to reconnect with the iconic shoreline landscape, honouring its timeless indigenous history and culture while delivering a world-class aquatic centre for both community wellness and high-performance sport. Expressing and reflecting the boundless Coast Salish history of the site and shoreline. The City of Vancouver commitments to Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Committee’s 94 Recommendations and UNDRIP strategies were made central to the project as part of a larger ambition to indigenize and decolonize the design process. Through a collaborative process, including our engagement team and Indigenous Cultural Advisors and Artists, the team worked with xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations representatives, knowledge keepers, and the City’s Indigenous Relations staff to most embed knowledge, meaning, and cultural expression into all aspects the process and design. From the formal expression and tectonic language of the cladding to the procession from city to shore within the building, the project seeks to reflect and honor Indigeneity and Coast Salish knowledge throughout its design in both bold expressions and subtle details. Balancing high-performance sport with enhanced community amenities and inclusive wellness programming. The existing 1974 Aquatic Centre currently falls short of competition standards, seismic standards, operational efficiency, air quality and occupant comfort and is literally crumbling. Driven by ambitious goals, the initial project phase focused on maximizing the retention and renewal of the existing structure, while elevating the facility to world-class sustainability and comfort standards. The initial exploration ultimately concluded that renewal options surpassed budget constraints, while a new-build facility offered a faster and more efficient path to maximizing project value and delivering community amenities. The new facility will balance community leisure and fitness programs with high-performance sport training, offering a diverse range of activities for the entire community. World-class 10m platform diving, synchronized springboard diving, and short-course swim training facilities will provide a striking backdrop for families, youth, and seniors participating in health and wellness, learn-to-swim, and leisure swim programs. Pursuing North America’s first Passive House aquatic centre with best-in-class emissions reductions and occupant comfort. The project’s ambitions for ultra-low operational energy and world-class comfort and air quality are driven by three bold sustainability goals: (1) Delivering the Western Hemisphere’s first Passive House aquatic centre—and the world’s first to include Olympic platform diving—achieving the highest levels of energy efficiency, cost savings, and occupant comfort. (2) Implement passive inBlue Drum filters, achieving best-in-class outcomes in water and air quality, energy and water consumption, and operational efficiency. (3) De-carbonization via a fully electrified design that taps into British Columbia’s renewable hydroelectric grid, achieving zero operational emissions as well as delivering on the City of Vancouver’s 40% embodied carbon reduction mandate—an ambitious goal for a building typology traditionally marked by significant embodied carbon.