Preikestolen

23 Oct 2019 | Pools, Design, Design, Pools

Do not look down

Infinity Pool at Preikestolen

Hayri Atak

Tom Cruise at 604 m altitude

Preikestolen (“The Pulpit Rock”) is a tourist attraction in Norway, a steep cliff which rises 604 metres above the Lysefjorden. Atop the cliff, there is an almost flat top of approximately 25 by 25 metres. Preikestolen is located near the Western part of the fjord, and on its North side. The final fight scene in “Mission: Impossible – Fallout“ features Tom Cruise climbing the face of the cliff at Preikestolen.

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Nine suites, one pool

Inspired by this scenic overlook, Hayri Atak Architectural Design Studio has designed a spectacular concept for an infinity pool and a boutique hotel. The proposal features the accommodations nestled onto a side of Preikestolen over the Lysefjorden fjords.

The cantilevered glass-bottom pool allows courageous swimmers to enjoy the water while looking down into the fjord. The nine-suite hotel would be entered from the top of the cliff, with a common lounge area and guest rooms nestled into the face of the rock. The upper entryway would double as a scenic overlook, while real adventure seekers would want to venture to the pool deck.

Emotions

The entire concept was inspired by a photograph sent to studio founder Hayri Atak. Thrilled by the photo a friend took during her vacation to Norway, Atak sought to capture the adrenaline pumping scene into his architecture. “Even though I wasn’t there, I experienced the adrenaline of being on the edge,” Atak said. “Then I dreamed of living on and beyond the edge. Simply, I just wanted to carry this experience beyond the edge and the idea of having this experience inspired me.”

Preikestolen attracts more than 300,000 visitors every year. You usually have to wait a long time to take a picture of the solitary creature on the mountain plateau. For this reason alone it is hard to imagine that a hotel will ever be built here. It is, however, a lesson about the importance of emotions for architecture. And it is a wonderful inspiration and motivation for courageous ideas and designs.

We did this.

Architect and address

Architect

Hayri Atak
Ataşehir – İstanbul
Türkei

Address

Preikestolen
4129 Songesand

Norwegen

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At “More Sports. More Architecture.” you will find functional, spectacular and simply beautiful buildings and facilities for sports and leisure.

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Infinity London

14 Aug 2019 | Design, Design, Pools, Sports Grounds

Pool with a view

Infinity London

Compass Pool

Ambitious

Death defying swimming pools are set to become an architectural trend in central London, allowing visitors to float over 200 metres above the capital’s skyline. Pool designers at Compass Pools have developed Infinity London, the only building in the world to incorporate a 360-degree infinity pool.

The pool is made from cast acrylic rather than glass, as this material transmits light at a similar wavelength to water so that the pool will look perfectly clear.

The floor of the pool is also transparent, allowing visitors to see the swimmers and sky above.

Getting into the water

Swimmers will access the pool through a rotating spiral staircase based on the door of a submarine, rising from the pool floor when someone wants to get in or out. A little bit James Bond to boot!”

Normally a simple ladder would suffice, but the designers didn’t want stairs on the outside of the building or in the pool as it would spoil the view – and obviously they don’t want 600,000 litres of water draining through the building either.

Building services

Other advanced technical features include a built-in anemometer to monitor the wind speed. This is linked to a computer-controlled building management system to ensure the pool stays at the right temperature and water doesn’t get blown down to the streets below.

Boasting an innovative twist on renewable energy, the pool’s heating system will use waste energy from the air condition system for the building. The hot gas that is produced as a by-product of creating cold air in the building will run through a heat exchanger to heat the water for the pool.

The pool is also fitted with a full spectrum of lights which will give the building the appearance of a sparkling jewel-topped torch at night.

Approach

Compass Pool’s swimming pool designer and technical director Alex Kemsley commented: “Architects often come to us to design roof top infinity pools, but rarely do we get a say in the building design because the pool is usually an afterthought.

“But on this project, we actually started with the pool design and essentially said, ‘how do we put a building underneath this?’ “When we designed the pool, we wanted an uninterrupted view, both above and below the water.

It will have a five-star international hotel on the top floors of the building with the pool used by the guests.

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Tammela Stadium

19 Feb 2018 | Design, Design, Design, Stadia, Stadiums

Room with a view

Tammela Stadium in Tampere

Situation

Tammela Stadium is situated in the midst of residential buildings and is home to the football club Ilves in the Finnish town of Tampere. It was built in 1931, offers 5,000 seats on two different stands and is to be replaced by a new building.

New Tammela Stadium aims to unify the city structure in Tammela by reintroducing traditional closed block structure to an area that has become fragmented and incoherent. There is a green “courtyard” surrounded by a continuous low building mass housing small shops like in historic city blocks that have mostly been torn down. In the East, the block boarders Kaleva Boulevard in the same line with an old school building North of the stadium. On the Western side the block is retracted to form a small entrance square for the building and to leave enough space for the existing housing. This is how the existing row of trees can be preserved. This is important as there are only few green spaces in the area and every tree counts.

Buildings from all four sides

Surrounding the pitch with buildings from all four sides makes the block efficient and financially sustainable without making the stadium too massive in valuable historic setting. The City of Tampere aims to finance the public stadium project by selling the building right for the housing on top of the stadium. As the audience surrounds players from all four sides the bowl like space is spatially very intense. The heights of the crown like block’s tips have been carefully adapted to surrounding buildings. By pushing down the middle parts of the sides, the neighbors’ long views have been preserved and the school courtyard still gets direct sunlight. The home team of Tampere is called Ilves meaning lynx. You can see references to lynx’s ear tufts or the flight path of a football in the form of the block.

Architect

avanto architects ltd
kalevankatu 31 a
3 fi – 00100 helsinki
finland

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Client

City of Tampere

Address

Kalevan puistotie 21
33500 Tampere
Finland

Aerial view

Thank you, Google!

Enter from all four corners

You may enter the stadium from all four corners. It is easy to find the entrances that are situated under the vaulted ceiling of building masses at the ends of the field. As required by UEFA, it is possible to arrange a separate entrance and stand for a visitor team. The most public functions, the restaurant and the gym, have been placed in the block corners so that they are easy to reach. The idea is to open the building for the local residents as well. All spaces are flexible and can be used by different users during different times of the day so that the use ratio of spaces can be raised. The hybrid block housing various functions is active 24/7.

The field is oriented North-South and the main stand with TV cameras is on the West side, according to UEFA instructions. As the bridge like buildings on reinforced concrete arcs on the short ends need no columns, even the end stands have unobstructed views to the field. The stands can temporarily be extended to fill the highest UEFA category 4.

Living in a stadium

As the building volume is relatively thick, many different types of housing can be built. The proposed student flats counterbalance the demographic structure of the area with mostly elderly people. Special emphases was put to the social sustainability of the project. The sense of community is created by introducing various common spaces like green conservatories and saunas with extensive roof terraces. The generous side-corridor provides extra space for storing a bicycle, urban gardening or even watching a match inside the stadium with your neighbors. The uppermost floor with curved roof houses loft apartments with varying ceiling height.