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Solution — land-based

Panel-built pool on flat ground.

The pool is delivered as flat sandwich panels, stacked for shipping by sea or road and assembled on site. It is built upwards from ground level — no excavation, no blasting and no groundwater to contend with.

Land-based swimming facility built up from ground level beside a sports hall, with a competition pool, a teaching basin and a therapy basin, changing rooms in the deck, and a running track, parking and cycle paths around it

Concept study

Pool size

25 × 12.5 m, or to requirement

Configuration

One or several basins

Construction

Prefabricated sandwich panels

Waterproofing

Continuous membrane

Base

Flat ground — no excavation

Heating

Sea water, boreholes, waste heat or district heating

Build time

About one year from contract

Transport

Stacked flat, by sea or road

Relocatable

Yes, by dismantling

The principle

Built upwards, not downwards.

A conventional pool is a hole in the ground. Whether the shell is concrete or steel, the pit has to be dug, often blasted, and everything that turns up on the way — rock, clay, groundwater, old services — is a bill nobody could price in advance. Excavation is the single item most likely to overrun.

Our land-based pool is instead built upwards from ground level, directly on a flat load-bearing surface. Asphalt, concrete or compacted gravel will do. The low self-weight of the sandwich construction is what makes it possible — the structure weighs a fraction of a buried pool and needs no comparable foundation.

The panels are produced to machined tolerances in the factory, shipped flat-packed and assembled on site. After assembly a continuous membrane is laid over every wetted surface. Where a tiled pool has a sealed joint at every seam, this facility has one continuous waterproof layer with no joints to maintain.

Configuration

Same sizes and layout as the floating facilities.

The standard pool is 25 × 12.5 metres, but other dimensions can be made to order. The water surface can also be divided into separate basins.

25–28 °C

Training and competition

Full-length, full-depth lanes for the swimming club, lap swimmers and lifesaving tests. Cooler water gives better conditions for hard training.

29–31 °C

Learn-to-swim

A shallower basin with warmer water, where children can stand safely and instructors can stay in the water for a full session without getting cold.

32–34 °C

Therapy and baby swimming

A separate warm basin for rehabilitation, movement groups and baby swimming — user groups that rarely get pool time in a conventional public facility.

Temperatures are typical operating values and are adapted to each facility.

Heating

The heat source follows the site.

A pool has to hold 28–34 degrees, not the 55 of a radiator circuit. That means almost any low-temperature heat source will do — including heat too cold to be useful for anything else. Which solution makes most sense is decided in the pre-project.

Sea water

If the facility is near the sea, heat can be drawn from it on the same principle as in the floating facilities.

Boreholes

Ground-source boreholes give a stable source year-round, independent of any location near water.

Waste heat

Surplus heat from industry, a data centre, sewerage or a refrigeration plant in a neighbouring building. This heat is often at too low a temperature to be used for anything else — and goes straight into the air today.

District heating

Where a network exists, connection is often the simplest option and needs the least plant on site.

Location

Put it where the infrastructure already is.

Land-based facilities are intended to sit alongside schools, sports halls and sports parks. That is not an arbitrary recommendation — it is where half the bill has already been paid.

At the school

Swimming lessons in the school grounds rather than a bus ride to the next town. The timetable works, and the travel time that eats the lesson disappears.

At the sports hall

Changing rooms, showers, parking and operating staff are already there. The facility then only needs the pool and the water treatment.

In the sports park

Co-location with pitches and a clubhouse gives shared operation, shared supervision and a facility used all day, not only during school hours.

Where the ground is difficult

Rock, quick clay or a high water table is decisive for a pool that has to be dug in, whatever the shell is made of. For a facility built upwards it matters little.

Far from everything

The panels stack flat and travel many to a load, by sea where that suits. Shipping to a remote community costs a fraction of moving concrete and formwork to the same place.

Temporary need

The facility can be dismantled and re-erected elsewhere. It takes more work than towing a floating facility, but the option is there.

From decision to opening

How a project runs.

Pre-project Need, dimensioning, location, cost and funding. The decision basis you need before the case is put to a board or a council. 2–4 months
Engineering and permits Detailed engineering and the planning application. We prepare the documentation; you are the formal applicant.
Preparing the base A flat, load-bearing surface of asphalt, concrete or compacted gravel is established. The work can be done by a local contractor and runs in parallel with production.
Factory production The sandwich elements are bonded under pressure and vacuum, indoors under controlled conditions and with documented quality for each element. Factory production is something we share with steel pools, and both avoid what a concrete pool must go through: casting outdoors on site, where temperature and season feed straight into the result. The difference between steel and composite lies in the panel itself — load-bearing and insulating in one component, with no welds.
Shipping The panels are too large for a container, but they stack flat and travel many to a load — by sea or on a lorry. A whole pool takes a fraction of the volume that concrete and formwork would need.
Assembly and membrane The panels are assembled on the base, and a continuous membrane is laid over every wetted surface.
Technical installation Water treatment, heating, railings, ladders and access are installed and connected.
Commissioning and training Running-in of water treatment, documentation and training of operating staff before handover. Because the groundwork runs in parallel with factory production, few steps sit end to end on the critical path. About one year from contract to opening in total — smaller facilities and standalone pools are quicker

Prerequisites

What you need to provide.

The list gets shorter the closer you put the pool to existing facilities. Site it next to a sports hall and several of the points are already solved.

A flat, load-bearing surface — asphalt, concrete or compacted gravel
Sufficient area for the pool, the pool surround and access
Connection to power, water and drainage
Changing rooms and showers — existing building or new
Access for long loads and lifting equipment during assembly
Planning and building permits
An operating organisation — lifeguarding, cleaning and technical supervision

The material in operation

Same construction, assembled a different way.

Arendal Sjøbad is built in the same glass-fibre reinforced sandwich construction, on the same water treatment principles. What separates the two solutions is how the structure is put together and what it rests on — not what it is made of. The facility was built as a public research and development contract with the municipal port authority Arendal Havn KF as client.

Arendal Sjøbad, the floating swimming facility in Arendal guest harbour on a summer morning, with swimmers in the pool, boats at the quay and the town behind — Facility **Arendal Sjøbad** Client **Arendal Havn KF** Delivered as **public R&D contract** Status **In operation** Photo: Aquarious