Melton City Council’s new Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Fraser Rise is a new two-storey leisure and health centre being built for the rapidly growing north-west of Melbourne. The facility will be built on a site covering around 3.6 hectares and will bring together sports, recreation and community facilities in one location.
The centre sends a strong signal for inclusion, as it offers a water play area that is easily accessible for people with sensory impairments.
Inside, there will be a 50-metre competition pool with barrier-free access, several ‘Learn to Swim’ pools, a leisure and toddler area with ‘beach style’ entry, hot water facilities, spas and saunas, as well as slides and splash areas. The facility is complemented by health and fitness areas, including a large gym area, as well as rooms and areas for events and community use.
Our task and services as HESS TIMBER
For the new Aquatic and Leisure Centre in Fraser Rise, we are responsible for design consulting, timber construction planning, project management, production and component delivery.
Our scope of supply focuses on the roof structure for two indoor pool areas, together with a featured external canopy. In total, we are supplying 375 m³ of glulam timber from the HASSLACHER group.
For our consulting services, we are involved in the early detailed design phase to optimise the material use, improve overall cost-efficiency and to support an outcome which respects the installation challenges specific to aquatic projects. This early value management is crucial for swimming pools and wellness facilities, as the supporting structure and material performances are very closely interlinked, and there are many project-specific conditions to be resolved.
In the timber construction planning, our goal is to create plans that not only function statically, but are also suitable for production and take subsequent component logistics into account. One key achievement was the implementation of full-length, precambered beams over the pool halls. This not only provides structural confidence within the highly corrosive pool environment, but also greatly improves the project aesthetics and buildability outcomes.
In production and delivery, the focus is on a high degree of prefabrication, as this measurably improves quality, fit accuracy and assembly efficiency. Our project management ensures clear processes, transparent scheduling and reliable interface coordination, from engineering to delivery. This includes the specialised transportation of the massive glulam beams from the European production plan to site in Melbourne, Australia.
5-star Green Star target
The Aquatic Centre is planned as a purely electrically powered facility and is aiming for a 5-star Green Star rating. This is an important step for a building with high energy requirements during operation, because the significant impacts arise not only during the construction phase, but above all during subsequent operation.
