Pool De Kuil: Sustainable pool for recreational and professional swimmers

In the new swimming pool De Kuil, the municipality of Bodegraven-Reeuwijk wanted a slide at the outdoor pool. Although the available budget did not allow for this, construction company Vaessen managed to come up with a good solution.

Text | Tim van Dorsten    Image | Vaessen bv

Opening up the facade creates one large bathing area during the summer months, blurring the boundaries between indoor and outdoor, explains Jeroen Geurts of Vaessen. "In this regard, we have provided a family slide on the facade." He says this solution is due to Vaessen's specialization. "We focus on social real estate, where we especially have a lot of experience in building sports facilities, including swimming pools. Thanks to that experience, we were able to arrive at an appropriate and suitable solution."

Competitions are held in the 25-meter pool.

So when the municipality came up with the tender for a new swimming pool in 2018, Vaessen responded immediately by signing up for it together with architectural firm Slangen + Koenen Architects, installation companies Van Dorp and Hoffman. "We were awarded the contract because our tender was the most economically advantageous," Geurts explains. "In addition, the Design & Build contact appealed to us because we have our own in-house construction and engineering branch."

In addition to the mutual consultation, a meeting with the municipality and its advisors took place about once every two weeks. "This kept the municipality and us informed, so that we were both on the right track. Among other things, in terms of structural and technical requirements."

The boundaries between inside and outside are blurring.

Recreational and professional

Vaessen chose to manufacture the main supporting structure from wood, and the other materials are also low-maintenance. The indoor pool consists of a 25-meter competition pool, a target group pool of 25 meters by 12.5 meters and a paddling pool. This means that not only recreational athletes but also professional swimmers and water polo players come to this pool. Therefore, in addition to the requirements of the municipality of Bodegraven-Reeuwijk, Vaessen also had to meet the requirements of the Royal Dutch Swimming Association (KNZB). "Otherwise, no competitions can be held in the 25-meter pool," he said. In addition, Vaessen had to take into account the existing sports hall, which is on the same property. In fact, against that sports hall, Vaessen built the pool. "That sports hall was about two meters below ground level," Geurts says. "A swimming pool will be about four meters underground. During construction work, of course, no cracks were allowed to appear in the existing sports hall. We succeeded well in that."

The main load-bearing structure is wood.

Sustainable

The new pool has all-electric installations, which is mainly due to the heat sources and solar panels. Thanks to this energy generation and the wooden support structure, the new pool has an EPC of 0.0 and GPR score - a sustainability score for municipal buildings - of 8.3 on average. Once the new pool is completed, Vaessen will demolish the old pool. This is on the same site and has remained in use during construction of the new pool. "At the location of the old pool there will be parking spaces. The rest will be set up as outdoor areas at the new pool," Geurts said. In total, the project took 2.5 years: a year and a half for the construction process and a year for engineering.

Project info

Steel construction delivered in a short time

Following a request from construction company Vaessen, Janssen Lastechnieken had only a few weeks to make the steel structure for the technical room of the new swimming pool De Kuil in Bodegraven.

After project manager Harm van Oijen of Janssen Lastechnieken received the request from the construction company in mid-July, the agreement with Vaessen followed a week later. "The main guarantee was the delivery time," says Van Oijen. "That was very short, partly because of the construction holiday: we had to give the assurance that the construction would be ready by mid-September." The main thing was that the Wijchen metal company would quickly put the construction on paper. "That is often a bottleneck," he explains. "Then we had the steel galvanized and coated. By continuing to work during the construction period, we were able to build the structure on site on time." Thanks in part to this achievement, Janssen Lastechnieken was also able to supply pressure sleeves, wind bracing, various auxiliary steel, stairs and handrails, among other things, for the new swimming pool in Bodegraven. "Since we can handle all facets ourselves, from engineering to laser cutting and assembly, we were able to complete this project so quickly with our team."