Projects

This project represented a major investment in competitive swimming in Scotland. The Olympic-standard centre features two halls housing the 50m ten-lane training pool and 25m pool, which has a full range of diving facilities (making it one of just ten centres in the UK to provide this).

The pools are separated by accommodation and changing rooms, allowing them to be used for different activities simultaneously, including school swimming lessons, fitness classes and training sessions.

The precise geometry and black zinc used for the pool hall stands in sharp juxtaposition to the taller, aluminium-clad diving hall.

This landmark project broadened the definition of leisure buildings and became the standard against which future recreation projects would be measured.

The building is recognised by the distinctive glazed pyramid that houses a 300m2 ‘leisure lagoon’—the UK’s first leisure pool. The facility also includes a sports hall, bowling green, youth club, theatre and bowling alley, making it a comprehensive hub for recreation and community-building. Its success spurred the English Sports Council to add leisure to its existing remit for sport, making this project one that changed the public experience of sport.

FaulknerBrowns’ aim for Carre de Soie was to revitalise this former industrial district into a vibrant retail and leisure destination. The 240-hectare site features a new horse-racing grandstand, pony club, skate park, restaurants, cinema and boutiques. The fact that every rental unit was let prior to completion speaks to the success of the development.

A flowing, steel lattice-work canopy connects the units and covers the main ‘avenue’, providing a modern, distinctive identity. The design prioritises sustainability and green spaces, and is pedestrian-friendly, making it a model for contemporary urban regeneration in France.

Chill Factorᵉ is the UK’s largest real snow facility, and the fourth FaulknerBrowns has built in the UK. The centre is divided into two: the snow zone and the surrounding alpine-themed leisure district, which hosts bars, restaurants, retail outlets and an indoor climbing wall.

The soft Alpine street meanders through the building, punctuated by climbing walls, bridges, rocky fins and authentic shop fronts, creating a warm welcoming journey into this resort. The snow zone, with views of its slopes maintained from the street, features three pistes to accommodate varying ages, abilities and activities, with the longest run measuring 180 metres.

This velodrome was designed to demystify high-performance sport and make indoor cycling more accessible. The design team’s knowledge of both community and elite sports, particularly the inter-relationships between cycling and other sports, were key to winning this high-profile commission.

As well as the cycling track, the centre features a running track with views of the surrounding park, a sports hall, dance studios and a fitness suite, making it a dynamic venue for leisure and high-level training. The centre offers childcare, reducing barriers to entry, and spaces for meetings and social events, as well as a café with views of the sports hall.

Continuing FaulknerBrowns’ work with Durham University, we completed a remodel of their primary sports facility. This involved the refurbishment of existing facilities as well as an expansion, which included the addition of an indoor cricket hall, a 12-court multi-use sports hall, a martial arts studio and fitness suite, as well as sports science, recovery and support facilities.

The site is near a conservation area and has views of the Durham Castle and Cathedral UNESCO World Heritage Site. The design sensitively minimises the overall height of the development by adopting efficient forms and structures.

This plan was designed to encourage family participation, with leisure components given equal importance to high-quality competitive sports facilities. We adapted the building to the restricted site by designing it to be compact in form, while still housing three levels of accommodation between the main sports hall and pool hall.

With a desire to eliminate glare from the pool and activity spaces, the steel-framed building is inward looking and predominantly brick in finish. The major spaces are illuminated by roof lights, while suspended acoustic ceilings help diffuse light and manage sound.

This project was an important component of Inverclyde Council’s efforts to regenerate the Greenock Waterfront area. FaulknerBrowns won the commission owing to their track record for innovative leisure centres and progressive business practice.

The exterior of the building is visually striking. The sloping roof is intersected with a whalebone-like structure of curved beams, providing both structural support and a distinct visual identity. The building’s nautical-inspired features channel the area's maritime heritage.

Inverness Aquatics Centre was commissioned and designed to encourage community engagement, health and wellbeing. The centre features a 25-metre championship pool, leisure waters and an outdoor lagoon, as well as a health suite, café and function room. The floor of the main pool can be raised to accommodate beginners and less confident swimmers.

The facility has become a regional tourist attraction and community hub. In its first year of operation, it attracted almost 450,000 visitors, making it one of the top ten attractions in Scotland.

This sports centre was developed as part of a strategy to improve the lifestyle offerings for staff and students at Lancaster University, as well as the local community. The centre provides both fitness and competition-standard facilities, including an eight-lane swimming pool, climbing wall, four sports halls and comprehensive fitness suite.

The large glass facades provide abundant natural light and promote the quality of the facilities inside. The centre was designed around sustainable goals, utilising green solutions like natural ventilation and a CHP plant that efficiently generates electricity and heat from the same source.

On opening, around 13,000 people a week used the centre, with 50% coming from the local community—far exceeding anticipated numbers.

Latymer Upper School is an independent school in West London known for excelling in sports. Following a competitive interview process, FaulknerBrowns won the commission to design a redevelopment of their existing sports facilities, which were no longer fit for purpose.

The centre includes a 25m six-lane swimming pool, a four-court sports hall and a gym. The site is on a conservation area by the River Thames, and is surrounded by sensitive residential streets, meaning it required careful negotiation, particularly regarding neighbours’ ‘right to light’. In response to the constrained site, we chose to stack the multi-purpose halls above the swimming pool to maximise space. We also orientated the building towards the busy A4, creating a high-profile design which particularly at night, advertises the school’s presence.

Designed to double the capacity of the existing centre, this project includes two Olympic-sized ice rinks, a gym, dance studios, a community space and a café. It supports competitive skating, ice hockey and public sessions.

Visually, the building is a striking example of modern architecture. It is wrapped in a striking copper-hued band.

The centre is designed to support biodiversity: it is anchored by a plinth that incorporates bird and bat boxes and is covered in climbing plants that provide habitats for insects and birds. The rink is also the first in the UK to use filtered and recycled ice melt water to create and feed new wetland habitats.

The ice halls have insulated cladding, which helps to maintain optimum conditions for ice, and roof-mounted photovoltaic panels that provide green energy. The centre is fully powered by electricity, making it the most sustainable ice centre in the UK.

Commissioned to host the 2002 Commonwealth Games, the Manchester Aquatics Centre houses two 50m pools, a diving pool, a leisure water area with flumes, children’s play area and a health suite.

Both 50m pools have moveable floors to cater to a variety of users. The training pool is located on the basement level of the building, optimising space on this compact site.

Visually, the centre is striking and modern. The curved roof gives the building an iconic profile that is distinct in the city’s architectural landscape. Inside, the rippling, wavy form of the ceiling imitates the motion of water, connecting the design to the building’s purpose.

The National Cycling Centre in Manchester has become the home of British Cycling. Widely considered the most successful velodrome in the world, the building’s role in developing the sport and increasing the UK’s medal tally cannot be underestimated.

As a competition venue it has hosted the Commonwealth Games and World Championships, and was the primary training facility for Team GB in the run-up to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The centre includes a 250-metre cycling track, BMX facility, spectator seating for 4000 people, and training and support facilities for both elite athletes and the local community. A 122-metre arch supports the lightweight aluminium roof and provides unobstructed views for spectators.

The Pan American Games are the world’s third-largest international multi-sport games. Given FaulknerBrowns’ experience designing world-class sporting venues, we were commissioned to create a velodrome for the 2015 games held in Toronto.

The Mattamy National Cycling Centre is the only velodrome in Canada certified to host international cycling competitions. Housing a 250-metre timber track and expandable 1500-seat spectator area, the centre is the official training facility for the Canadian cycling team.

The building’s form is centred around the geometry of the track and seating bowl—expressed as a simple drum with glazing providing views out to Niagara Escarpment. This simple, strong and dynamic form has become a distinct landmark, recognised as the home of Canadian cycling.

Commissioned by Derby City Council, Moorways Sports Village is a swimming and leisure centre designed to provide facilities for elite training as well as recreational spaces to enhance health and wellbeing in the local community.

The centre features a ten-lane, 50-metre swimming pool, leisure water area and teaching pool, as well as a gym, health and fitness studio, café and soft-play areas. The swimming and training areas intersect, creating views between key spaces and encouraging connection. The main pool has moveable floors and booms, meaning it can support multiple activities concurrently.

The building’s silver-toned aluminium external cladding references the neighbouring Rolls-Royce Aerospace Campus.

FaulknerBrowns is leading the renewal and expansion of the much-loved Spani Outdoor Pool (now Mundy Park Pool) in Coquitlam, British Columbia, to meet current sustainability and accessibility standards as well as modern community needs.

The project includes a leisure pool with beach entry, a lazy river, warm-water lap pool, hot pool and a renovated 25m competition tank.

The new design minimises the pool’s impact on the surrounding area through careful planning to minimise noise, traffic and land use. Our design ensures the facility is equipped to host organised swimming events—with features such as starting platforms, timing equipment and spectator seating—meaning the venue can be used for both competitive and leisure swimming, increasing its commercial value.

This venue is set to become a landmark for both Dublin and Ireland as part of the Sport Ireland Campus masterplan, providing Cricket Ireland with a permanent, world-class home. The centre will promote and support cricket at international, national, and local community levels.

Building on the existing high-performance cricket centre, which currently includes five synthetic nets, sixteen grass nets, and a fielding area, the new development will introduce key improvements, including an international-standard cricket oval and more spectator seating.

This landmark venue will house the first indoor velodrome track in Ireland, creating a permanent home for Cycling Ireland and elite cycling athletes, while helping to promote the sport and its health and wellbeing benefits to the wider community.

Located on the Sport Ireland Campus in Blanchardstown, Dublin, the centre will be suitable to host national and small-to-mid-scale international cycling competitions, as well as a variety of other events. The building and surrounding landscape will create an iconic entrance gateway to the campus at the northern corner of the site, as part of a long-term plan for wider development.

A key aspect of the proposal is to construct the cycling track at first floor level, which allows direct access to the infield area. This maximises utilisation of the space, with the potential for a range of activities, including badminton, basketball and volleyball.

Sustainability has been integral to the design process, from the building form, through to the choice of materials and the design of the engineering systems. The building will use a passive and natural approach to reduce the carbon footprint in both construction and operation.

The Nieuw Vennep Sport Centrum in the Netherlands is one of Europe’s most dynamic sports facilities. It houses a 25-metre pool, 20-metre training pool and children’s fun pools, as well as outdoor kids’ pools and a 25-metre pool based on a traditional lido. Visitors can also enjoy the sports hall, fitness suite, sauna and steam rooms, and dance studios.

We maximised flexibility by implementing drop-down acoustic screens to divide the hall, movable pool floors to maximise swim-training potential and screens to divide the dance studios. We also incorporated solar panels and heat recovery systems, in line with the Dutch commitment to environmental responsibility.

FaulknerBrowns won an international competition to design a flexible community pool in the Netherlands. Our aim for Nijmegen was to create a beautiful and sustainable swimming facility that would blend into the tranquil, green surroundings and evoke the sensation of swimming in the woods.

We used carefully selected materials and techniques to meet sustainability goals and ensure energy efficiency. The polished stainless-steel cladding reflects surrounding greenery and provides insulation. Both water and heat are recovered and reused inside, partly for underfloor heating, which—along with the wood-panelled ceilings—provides a cosy and inviting atmosphere.

Based in the city centre, Nottingham Ice Centre contains two Olympic-sized rinks and hosts community sessions, speed skating, figure skating and ice hockey training.

FaulknerBrowns’ design prioritised flexibility and efficiency. The 7,500-person seating area surrounding the main rink can quickly be converted to hold a capacity of 10,000 for concerts. The corridor between the two rinks features cafés, offices and sports science facilities, maximising management flexibility and support for both rinks.

The quality of the venue led it to become the UK’s first centre of excellence in ice sports and the primary training facility for the Great Britain Short Track Speed Skating squad.

With peak attendance of over 700,000 visitors per year, Perth Leisure Centre is one of the preeminent tourist attractions in Scotland. Designed in 1984, we sought to inject colour, vibrancy and fun into the centre, transforming the traditional leisure pool archetype.

Comprising five pools, including an outdoor lagoon, flume rides, bubble beds and other features unique to Scotland at the time, the combination of leisure and formal pools proved outstandingly successful. This project reflects FaulknerBrowns’ continuous search to introduce new and high-quality experiences to the general public.

This £43 million landmark project was one of the first integrated schools, sports and leisure projects in the United Kingdom.

The campus includes a primary school, secondary school and swimming pools shared by the schools and local community, as well as sports pitches and changing facilities for the town’s football, rugby and cricket clubs. Enhancing the versatility of the centre, there is also a library, café, climbing wall, soft-play area, fitness suite, sports halls and luxury spa.

The leisure facilities can be accessed separately from either side of the building, allowing them to switch between school and community use while maintaining the safeguarding of children.

The centre’s location in Belfast’s Botanic Gardens—easily accessible from most student accommodation—makes it an attractive and calming space to exercise. 

FaulknerBrowns chose a circular form for the building, in contrast to the box-like appearance of the previous sports centre. Although smaller in mass and scale, this design gives it a strong presence. The building centres around a two-floor climbing wall, which is visible to all visitors.

The centre also features a café overlooking the park and the river, and is a major asset to the sporting and social life of south Belfast.

FaulknerBrowns was chosen to design the redevelopment of St. John’s pool building. We created a two-storey extension that accommodates a 25-metre swimming pool, gym and multi-purpose space. The building wraps around two sides of the existing sports hall, giving the appearance of a completely refreshed facility and allowing for further expansion in future phases.

We implemented a dual-pitch roof form, minimising the height so as not to impose on the main sports hall or neighbouring properties. The double-pitch design is replicated inside the pool hall with a steel frame and glass panels, creating continuity of aesthetic.

Rooflights above the pool allow natural light in and reduce the need for artificial lighting. Natural tones and materials are used throughout, namely light timber and large glazed panelling, which create soft and airy activity spaces.

The University of Surrey Sports Park is one of the largest higher education sports centres in the UK. The extensive mix of facilities includes a 50-metre pool, 12-court sports hall, indoor and outdoor tennis courts, rugby, football and hockey pitches, and two multi-use games areas. The centre also includes a café, restaurant, bars and conference rooms, making it a truly multi-purpose venue.

The facility was designed to international standards, supporting high-performance athletes, but also providing a warm and welcoming space for all users. The prominent use of light timber and the fluid roof form help to soften the building’s scale and ground it in its natural surroundings.

The park was used as a training venue for the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games—a testament to the quality of its facilities and design.

The Wave is a high-octane leisure destination in Coventry city centre. The park includes six flume rides, a wave pool, lazy river, toddlers’ splash area and 25-metre pool.

The exhilarating leisure experience is contained within a 50-metre diameter drum, with the upper portions wrapped in a metal-clad skin. The main pool sits 11 metres above street level, with a glass opening in the cladding offering views out over the city.

The centre’s dry facilities include a fitness suite, squash courts and spa. The spa has a separate access point away from the high-traffic main entrance, allowing it to be operated independently. It features its own reception and changing facilities, three dry treatment rooms, a sauna, steam room, aromatherapy room and plunge pool.

The Acer Nethercott Sports Centre is set in the grounds of the Iffley Road running track—known as the home of Roger Bannister’s sub-four-minute mile. The centre’s most distinctive feature is its LED-lit glass ‘smart’ floor—the first of its kind in the UK. The lights beneath the surface can be operated via touch screen to form court lines for 84 different sports, including badminton, basketball, handball and volleyball, widening the variety of sports students can try. This innovative solution was developed over five years in collaboration with the university. The building embraces low and zero-carbon technologies, including the heat recovery system that capitalises on unused heat from the neighbouring pool.

This centre was part of a £20 million transformation of the University of Stirling’s sports facilities, which include national tennis and swimming academies.

The new building includes a fitness suite with more than 100 stations, three-court sports hall, indoor cycling studio, strength and conditioning area, and a state-of-the-art performance gym.

Users of the building also benefit from enhanced changing facilities and social spaces, including a café. The building’s glazed frontage exposes a central cylindrical drum with vertical timber fins spaced to create a concertina effect. This feature presents the illusion of motion and acts as a welcoming focal point in the entrance.

FaulknerBrowns were invited to work with the London Borough of Hillingdon to revitalise Uxbridge Lido—which had fallen into disrepair—into a comprehensive sports and leisure complex. Our three main goals for the project were a full and meticulous restoration of the outdoor pool; to design indoor facilities that would support elite training as well as the health of the local community; and to refurbish and preserve the site’s Grade II-listed, art-deco style grandstand and cascades.

To achieve this, we designed a 50-metre eight-lane pool, leisure pool, sports hall with four badminton courts, gym with sauna and steam rooms, fitness class studio, crèche and café. New outdoor facilities include a 400-metre eight-lane athletics track, rugby and football pitches, and a changing pavilion. We also restored the ‘moderne’-style, star-shaped lido back to its former glory.