Knowsley leisure and culture park in UK opens

Knowsley Metropolitan Borough Council in the UK has opened the £21m leisure and culture park in Knowsley, designed by architecture firm Broadway Malyan.

Built by Balfour Beatty Construction, the Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park features two 25m long swimming pools to house 300 spectators, a gym, six court sports hall and a spa.

Opened by former Olympic cyclist Chris Boardman, the facility also features performance, events and conference facilities with seating capacity for 900 people.

The complex includes ‘OurPlace’, a lottery-funded youth club, which was designed jointly by Broadway Malyan’s design team and Knowsley Youth Forum.

The development will house a skate park, media suite, dance studio and training kitchen with cafe.

Broadway Malyan said that the external profiled roofscapes of the main park building and that of the smaller club have been designed to respond to the surrounding landscape and internal uses. They combine to create a public entrance featuring an LED feature wall.

Sustainable features of the building include a biomass pellet boiler, which resulted in the scheme being rated ‘BREEAM Very Good’.

Broadway Malyan director Matt Brook said that the opening is the final milestone in the scheme.

"The finished result represents a new breed of mixed-use public building through the consolidation of circulation space into one central, naturally day-lit atrium, from which all facilities can be viewed and accessed," Brook said.

"This also doubles up as a social and event space and increases passive surveillance within the building to create a safer and more secure environment."

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Image: The Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park features two 25m long swimming pools, a gym, six court sports hall and a spa. Photo: Broadway Malyan.