Aluminium curtain wall in swimming pool

The city of Lokeren in Belgium recently opened the brand new swimming pool ‘Durmehal’. A swimming pool environment makes high demands on the joinery. Aliplast took up the challenge to offer a suitable total solution.

The old Durmebad in Lokeren (Belgium) dated from 1968 and was in need of renovation. TThe old building was completely demolished to make way for a new swimming pool complex with sports pool, diving pool, recreation area and cafeteria. The swimming pool was built against the existing sports hall, but deliberately with a clear contrast: concrete and small window openings in the sports hall, burnt wood and large areas of glass in front of the swimming pool. To export the dynamics of the pool to the outside, architect Kevin D'hondt of B2Ai architects designed the building with corners in different heights. In this way, Kevin created a playful spectacle of a roof in different levels. It is a building full of openness and transparency: views of visitorts and spaces from outside, of surroundings and passers-by from inside.

A project full of challenges

To implement the pool correctly on the site, everything was measured to the millimetre by construction company Pellikaan using a drone and then visualised in a 3D model. It was a challenging project. Wietse Mommaerts, senior project manager at construction company Pellikaan: ‘Building against an existing building created a supplementary challenge. Because the building is divided into two halves, separated by a pedestrian and cycle road, we had to connect the swimming pool installations under the road.

Large glass walls

An open and transparent design requires large glass panes. In order to offer a suitable solution for this complex project, the Aliplast project team and installer DMS Windows were closely involved in the preliminary phase. Sasha De Meulenare of DMS Windows: ‘We thoroughly examined the technical feasibility of the architectural design and proposed a suitable solution that fully met the requirements: the Aliplast MC Wall curtain wall system, ideal for the large entrance hall and other areas where a lot of daylight is required. The Star 75 window profile was chosen for the pool area. Due to the size and weights of the glass sections, we chose to glaze the profiles from the outside.’

Els Uvyn, project manager at Aliplast: ‘The external joinery is close to bath water, an aggressive environment. This is why we opted for pre-anodisation and a finish coat in seaside quality. Our ‘Qualicoat Seaside’ label guarantees a very good coating performance, for seaside projects but also for this swimming pool area. A champagne-coloured anodisation was chosen for the interior joinery: a layer thickness of 25 mµ was provided in the pool area. Another important aspect was acoustics. This is why Star 75 window profiles with acoustic insulation up to 47dB (-1;-4) were used between the pool and cafeteria. FR-90 fireproof doors were installed for the escape routes. This was a nice overall project, in which we also assisted the structural engineer in drawing up the schedule and in the bending work for the facade.

Thanks to:

• City of Lokeren
• Architecture, interior and landscape: B2Ai architects and VenhoevenCS architecture+urbanism
• Stability: Sweco
• Techniques: Boydens
• Water treatment: Wattec
• Contractor: Pellikaan
• Window installer: DMS Windows
• Photography: Yvan Glavie