A phased refurbishment of one of Portsmouth's best-loved public swimming pools.
The refurbishment and alteration works at Hilsea Lido were carried out for a public swimming pool on behalf of Portsmouth City Council. The existing site comprises an external swimming pool, a main building, an underground plant room, terraced areas and a pavilion building - with parts of these areas demolished, refurbished and altered in the first phase of works.
The main building follows in a subsequent phase, renovated and remodelled to provide new changing rooms, facilities, offices and meeting rooms. Alongside the permanent works, new portakabin-style changing rooms, shower areas and a food truck were proposed for the site, each requiring new MEP services connections and provisions.
MEP design from developed design through to testing and commissioning.
Osborn Associates was engaged to provide MEP design and engineering advice on the public swimming pool development, taking the scheme through RIBA Stages 3, 4, 5 and 6. The company designed and coordinated the MEP services throughout the development to meet all relevant requirements and to suit the new layout and use of each space.
A key part of the appointment was an extensive site survey of the existing mechanical and electrical services, determining which installations should be stripped out, which could be retained, and which would be left in-situ but de-activated. Testing and commissioning of all installed services completed the scope.
Working around ageing infrastructure and a constrained power supply.
Refurbishing an established lido site means designing around decades of accumulated services. The survey work was critical in establishing an accurate picture of what existed below ground and within the plant room before design decisions could be made - avoiding both unnecessary strip-out costs and the risk of relying on installations that were no longer fit for purpose.
The redevelopment also required an upgrade to the site's power lead-in. Osborn Associates liaised with the architect and the main electrical network supplier on the routes to be created for the new ducting, with careful consideration given to planning routes that facilitated the upgrade scheme while working around the site's existing structures and phased construction programme.
