The S&R Olympia Brugge is a water sport and entertainment facility located in the Belgian city of Bruges. The facility, designed by Artabel Architects, is a visual rhapsody in shades of blue which is accomplished in cooperation with local authorities and organizations.
The facilities include a 50 m Olympic size indoor swimming pool, recreation area, paddling pools, two outdoor pools, playing fields, café and outdoor bar, meeting rooms and a playground. The exterior expression of the building is an important aspect of the design in terms of relating exterior and interior uses to each other. The design of a façade to accommodate such a large programme of uses was not an easy task however, with the eastern wall of the facility alone measuring approximately 70 m in length. The response of Artabel Architects to this design challenge was the use of colour, breaking up what could have otherwise been an expansive and monotonous exterior with the visual rhythm and movement of stripes in different but complimentary blue tones that also make reference to the building’s aquatic nature.
Each of these stripes is made from boards of ROCKPANEL Colours measuring 300 mm in width. A high staircase tower serving the facility’s various slides is also clad with the same vertically oriented blue stripes, helping to make the tower appear leaner. At the entrance to the S&R and in the area surrounding the outdoor bar, the blue stripes are used as accent panels, creating a beautiful contrast between the colourful boards and the surrounding light grey plastering. Architect Eddy Havare explains: ‘Because the fact that the ROCKPANEL boards can be produced in almost any RAL/NCS colour code, we had complete freedom as architects in developing a colour concept for our design.’ The three blue hues ultimately used in this design are RAL 6034, RAL 210 40 25 and RAL 150 80 10. ‘Furthermore, we selected for the colour of the water slides RAL 6034, the same colour as one of the boards.’
Ease of maintenance and durability were also key considerations in the design, particularly because the S&R Group is responsible for the facility’s general operations for the next thirty years. Together with the advice of ROCKPANEL consultants, the architects opted for an additional ProtectPlus coating. The boards are therefore not only ‘graffiti-proof’, but also have an extremely smooth surface finish that allows accumulated dust and dirt to simply wash off in the rain.
With its unique custom selection of colours, the S&R Olympia Brugge stands out from the grey tones that characterise the city of Bruges, while blending with the surrounding green fields and making a harmonic reference its aquatic world within.
