A UK engineering firm which worked on the Beijing Olympics Water Cube will help to design Plymouth's £44 million Life Centre.

Plymouth City Council has appointed SMC Charter Architects and ARUP as the design team for the world-class scheme following a comprehensive tendering exercise which invited bids from Europe as well as the UK.

SMC Charter Architects will act as architect and lead designer on the project, supported by ARUP as the civil, structural, mechanical and electrical engineering consultants.

ARUP was part of a consortium responsible for designing the $100 million Water Cube aquatics centre for the Beijing Olympics and has been instrumental in several multi-million pound pool and leisure complexes across the country. SMC Charter Architects was architect and lead consultant on a £24 million leisure development programme for London Borough of Redbridge and the £10.2 million Garons swimming pool and dive centre in Southend.


The Life Centre represents Plymouth's biggest ever investment in leisure facilities and will underline the city's credentials as a premier venue for local, national and even international events.

The facility will be the best leisure centre of its kind in the region and one of the country's leading centres of aquatic excellence, attracting top sportsmen and women including Plymouth's own Olympic divers Tom Daley and Tonia Couch.

A hub of community activity that will excite and inspire local residents of all ages and abilities, the Life Centre will include a full-size ice rink, 50-metre Olympic size pool, diving pool, dryside diving facility, leisure water, climbing area, eight-rink bowling facility, 12-court sports hall, fitness suite with over 100 stations, health suite, multi-purpose space and dance studio, health clinics, cafe, crèche and soft play area.

International property consultancy EC Harris was appointed lead project consultant earlier in the year and is working closely with the City Council to manage the scheme. SMC Charter Architects and Arup will now take a detailed brief developed by the Council and EC Harris to develop a final design which will form the basis of a formal planning application being submitted in the winter. Construction is scheduled to start in 2009 with completion in 2011.

(CD/JM)