ATLANTA SWIM + DIVE

an alternative recreational area for the busiest airport in the world

For this 5-week project, the prompt was to design an aquatic center for Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. After exploring different ideas with conceptual collages and models, I knew that I wanted to incorporate water stacked on top of another body of water somehow. I thought this would create a unique experience for both the swimmer and the bystander. For the swimmer, they could swim and look down and see other people swimming or diving through the aquarium structural glass below. For the bystander, they could look up and see people swimming above (or below). I thought that stacking the pools would create a unique light effect as the light shines through these layers of water so that the bystander can experience the essence of water. The program of the building is also explicitly split up into “wet” and “dry” functions. With the “dry” functions being on the west side of the building and the “wet” functions being on the east side of the building.

ACADEMIC YEAR
Summer 2018

LEVEL
Summer Studio I

COURSE
ARCH 4855

INSTRUCTOR
Charles Rudolph

As a point of departure, I created a digital collage and was playing with the idea of layering spaces vertically and what type of experience that would generate for people above + below and figuring out ways of visually connecting all three levels.

Floor plans of the four story aquatic center // The first thing one sees as they are coming up the escalators from the plane train is a huge aquarium glass wall. This serves as the diving well for the divers diving one floor above. I thought it would provide an interesting experience for viewers coming off of their plane to see a wall of water with divers sporadically coming down and it would serve almost as an art piece as or performance as they are welcomed into Atlanta.