Olympic Tennis Centre Homebush

Directly responsible for the concept, scheme and detail documentation for post Olympic and Olympic population overlay to the project for this Arup project. The project required the design and documentation of services for peak Olympic population usage projections and post games use for hot and cold water, sewer, sanitary plumbing, sanitary fixtures natural gas, trade waste, fire hydrants, hose reels and fire sprinklers, EWIS and dry fire systems.

Recycled water was used for flushing toilets and external wash down taps. An Olympic overlay design was based on estimated extra spectators for water demand, food consumption and sewer loadings from information obtained from other Olympics. Allowances were made for the Olympic overlay with services for trade waste drainage systems from external food distributors as well as drug testing amenities and Olympic officials including separate offices for broadcasting and administration. Security was maintained with lockdown storm water, sewer and sanitary plumbing access lids to pits and drains. Separation of administration, Olympic Committee, spectators and Olympians increased the amenity requirements. Engineering staff were on standby during the Olympic period for any emergency callouts.

The roof is in the form of a doughnut with open inner court areas. A horizontal siphon roof drainage system was dropped to ground level concealed within the angled structural beams so that the inner perimeter roof gutter could be horizontally drained to the outside perimeter at high level without affecting the top grandstand seating. The external gutter and down pipes are also drained using a siphonic system allowing the down pipes to be fixed hard against the roof soffit and marry the internal down pipes at high level. This was a pleasing aesthetic proposition put by the Discipline at the time to the Architects, and overcame a major problem. This was one of the first siphonic drainage systems proposed in Australia. Design also included storm water drainage around the site to a natural creek watercourse containing a fog and mist memorial adjacent to the site and draining any overland flow as well as the sunken centre court sub-soil collection system from the pumped rising main. The hydraulic systems were designed for use with the color coded recycled and potable water supplies using plasticized piping. Architect, client and project managers expressed their gratitude to the Hydraulic Services Discipline team for their ongoing professional attitude and practical ability during the construction of this project.

Client: Olympic 2000 Organising Committee
Architects: Bligh Voller Nield
Photo: Creativity by Richard Drew