AusLeisure

The City of Sydney’s Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre, has future-proofed its facility with revolutionary entrance gates. 

The largest pool complex in Sydney since the 2000 Olympics, the facility has had a steady number of visitors since it opened its doors in the rapidly-growing Green Square neighbourhood in February.

Andrew Burges Architects, along with Grimshaw and Taylor Cullity Lethlean, won a City of Sydney design competition for the project against more than 140 other architects in 2014 - and chose Centaman Entrance Control’s EasyGate SPT to automatically keep visitors flowing through the busy $106 million complex.

Explaining that the architects intended entry to the facility to be like an urban living room, and movement through the centre is carefully orchestrated to create separate zones, Centaman Entrance Control General Manager, Michael Bystram advised “we wanted to work with the architects to provide entrance control gates that matched their vision.”

The complex has two sets of three-lane gates at the main reception and one at the gym entrance on level 1 of the building, with each set having two lanes for entry and one for exiting.

Fitted out with Centaman’s Magnetic Direct Drive motor, the SPT model offers quiet operation and fast opening and closing times, for speedy throughput and high security.

The gates have waist-height glass barriers, rather than the common 1.8m height, so they do not detract from the building’s aesthetic, which was inspired by the beach pools of Sydney.

While aquatic, recreation and sport centres often select the EasyGate SG, for the new Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre the premium SPT was specified, with Bystram noting “our EasyGate SPT is often the go-to choice for corporate offices, but in this case, it has worked well for the busy Gunyama centre. It needed a high-security option that could keep up with the traffic.”

When members sign up to the state-of-the-art gym or pool, they are issued membership cards or radio-frequency identification tags that can be scanned at the entrance gates for instant access.

The EasyGate SPT works with the facility’s leisure management system and is future-proofed with the possibility of setting up an iPad point-of-sale system.

Self-service kiosks help to ease customer congestion at reception and allow staff to help customers with queries and membership sales.

The kiosks have been invaluable for the facility while Covid-19 is in the community because they help to reduce queues make social distancing easier.

Colour-coded lights alert users when they can safely pass through the gates and differentiate between entry and exit points.

The new Centre has made the cut in the NSW Architecture Awards, shortlisted in the Public Architecture, Sustainable Architecture, and Urban Design categories, with winners announced in July.

The facility is the first recreation centre in Australia to achieve a five-star Green Star - Design & As Built rating thanks to its energy-saving systems and other sustainable design principles.

Click here to contact Centaman Entrance Control via their Australasian Leisure Management Supplier Directory entry.

Images: The EasyGate SPT gates at Gunyama Park Aquatic and Recreation Centre. Credit: Centaman Entrance Control.

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