Publications

Vic Davies Architect (2003) Ltd. design concepts have received universal acceptance and their completed facilities are regularly toured by owners, operators, managers, and design professionals from all over the world, seeking new ideas for their ‘state-of-the-art’ recreation facilities. A tour guided by Vic Davies through these innovative and exciting facilities is guaranteed to make even the most hardened skeptic into a believer of the “leisure pool” concept.

As not everyone can take part in such a tour, VDA invites you to read the following articles and visit some of the project pages contained on this web site. Allow yourself to be taken on a “virtual tour” of some of the best recreation facilities in the world and to gain and understanding of the concepts behind their design and development.

Pooling Resources

“At the bottom of the world resides one of the finest examples of how to integrate a multilevel leisure pool concept into a natural rock and vegetation environment. Hanmer Springs Thermal Reserve in New Zealand, 90 miles north of Christchurch, has been harmonizing with nature in one form or another since 1859. The hot springs facility, through two major expansion, has been transformed from a series of drab rectangular and hexagonal pools to several interconnected rock pools on varying levels, followed by the addition of a freeform family activity pool and two waterslides. More

Waves of the Future

“If we can’t take the kids to the ocean, lets bring the ocean to the kids” — that’s the catch phrase now sweeping municipalities in Canada when they fully realized the benefits of installing an indoor wavepool in their general catchment area. The past decade in British Columbia alone has seen 8 such indoor facilities completed with another 4 presently on the drawing board. Alberta is fast following the trend. More

The Case for
Leisurizing Pools

The realization that swimming pools must cater to a wider variety of the population than just the competitive swimmer was highlighted in most municipalities in New Zealand following local authority amalgamations in 1989.

Parks and recreation staff throughout the country were asked to look very closely at the cost of operating swimming pool facilities and trim deficits. More

Now That’s Entertainment

Despite the fact that Europe, during the late 1960s and 70s, had introduced “leisure pools,” it was not a concept that was readily accepted in Canada until the early 1980s. With the larger cities tending to adopt an approach of “let someone else try it”, it was the smaller, more isolated communities in British Columbia who had the foresight and courage to introduce entertainment in recreation facilities. More

Aquatic Facility Design Trends

The realization that swimming pools must cater to a wider variety of the population than just the competitive swimmer reached British Columbia in the early 1980’s when municipalities contemplating new aquatic facilities decided to follow the European trend of leisurization in aquatic facility design. Since then, great strides have been made in this province in facility planning, design and operation. More