Osage Prairie YMCA Natatorium

Specific Solutions 

The Osage Prairie YMCA Natatorium supports competition swim meets as well as provides therapy and leisure activities for citizens of Nevada, Missouri. The project’s limited budget required the design team to work closely with the YMCA Pool Committee in developing creative solutions to achieve their goals for the facility. As the project demanded economy and durability above all else, the design concept focused on the exploration of a modest yet durable envelope to enclose the highest quality aquatic facility feasible.

Innovation 

The constraints of an economical, highly durable envelope and interior challenged the team to seek out the inherent qualities of the interior aquatic environment and investigate manufacturing processes and materials that would enhance the design of this space. The design utilizes a pre-cast insulated concrete sandwich panel system and features an exercise in patterning, modulating, and repetitiveness derived from the economy of its materiality. 

The economy of the pre-cast panels is maintained by creating a repetition in the perforation patterns. A lightness of material, achieved through relief, perforation, and motion, contradicts the inherent character of the large concrete panels. The treatment of the building envelope creates a patterning of natural light in the interior space which plays on the reflections in the pool surface and highlights the fluidity and liveliness of the pool facility. 

Suitability of the design to the project challenges 

The simple building form responds to a need to not merely shelter but to provide a straightforward and inventive response for filtering natural light into the facility. Light enters into the pool space through repetitive patterns in the insulated pre-cast concrete wall panels. The patterning breaks down the typically heavy, monolithic nature of the panels and also finds its way into far reaches of the interior through reflection in the water. The clean white interior finish of the walls diminishes the scale of the structure and, where not perforated by the patterning of the window openings, reduces visual clutter and allows the personality of the users and aquatic equipment to maintain precedence in the space. 

Successful collaboration of interior aesthetics and furnishings/Detail of Finishes 

The very nature of the facility, aquatics, water, effervescence, fluidity, and playfulness provided inspiration in developing the identity of the interior space. The interior does not strive to compete with the pool as the focus of the space but rather uses the motion of the pool to activate itself. The restraint applied in selecting interior colors further serves to emphasize the nature of the interior aesthetics. Acoustic ceiling baffles undulating between the roof structure mimic the basic wave motion of the water and evoke a peaceful mood above the surface, further manipulating the static nature of the box that encloses the space. The movement of the ceiling treatments and the dancing natural light on the surface of the water create a sense of calm when the water is still but bring the surface to life when the calm is broken. The punched window openings not only admit natural light, but from the exterior, provide a glimpse of the activities within as well as create an appealing patterning of glowing cubes at night. 

Benefits to the client 

The minimal interior results from an aspiration to highlight the aquatic activity as the main function of the space and the need to provide economy and durability in the enclosure. The designed space of the natatorium responds directly to these requirements. Through simplicity and exploitation of the unique quality of the materials employed, these basic needs were met. Minimal elements and articulating patterns as they were naturally available in the materials chosen evolved into a space that not only meets the client’s needs but provides an environment that quietly speaks to users inside and out in the form of light, views, and rhythm.