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Making a Splash: KLAY’s Role in the New Adelaide Aquatic Centre

Set within the Adelaide Park Lands, the new Adelaide Aquatic Centre is one of South Australia’s most significant civic projects in recent memory. Designed by Warren and Mahoney in collaboration with JPE Design Studio, and shaped by Kaurna man Karl ‘Winda’ Telfer through a Country-led design process, the facility replaces the ageing Adelaide Swimming Centre with a benchmark for what a contemporary, inclusive aquatic and wellness hub can be.

The completed centre includes a 50-metre indoor competition pool, a 25-metre outdoor pool, an indoor rehabilitation pool, a dedicated learn-to-swim pool, an outdoor lagoon, water play areas, and a full suite of wellness, gym and community facilities — all wrapped in a restrained material palette of mass timber and considered finishes that softens the scale of the brief and speaks to its Park Lands setting.

A Partner From the Ground Up

KLAY was engaged as the major tile supplier for the Adelaide Aquatic Centre, working alongside Warren and Mahoney and JPE Design Studio from the early stages of the project.  The team of designers successfully navigated the tension every aquatic project eventually faces: how to deliver on a demanding aesthetic and performance brief without blowing the budget.

Aquatic facilities are highly technical from a specification standpoint. They are notoriously unforgiving environments for finishes, and patron safety has to be carefully considered at every turn. Constant moisture, heavy foot traffic, chemical exposure and strict slip-resistance requirements mean tile selection is rarely straightforward, and cost pressures can push projects toward compromise. By working collaboratively with the design team, KLAY was able to help bring the project’s tiling scope into budget while protecting the visual language and long-term performance the architects were after.

Tiling the Pool Surrounds and Pool Interiors

All tiles supplied by KLAY for the Adelaide Aquatic Centre came from Agrob Buchtal, the German manufacturer behind the new Solar Ceramics technology, a specification chosen for both its performance credentials and its refined, contemporary finish. Across the pool surrounds and the pools themselves, the tiles feature Agrob Buchtal’s Hytect coating, an easy-clean, anti-bacterial surface treatment that addresses one of the most persistent challenges in aquatic design: the trade-off between cleanability and slip resistance.

In most pool environments, specifiers are forced to choose between a surface that’s easy to keep hygienic and one that’s safe underfoot when wet. Hytect-coated tiles are engineered to deliver both, reducing the build-up of bacteria, grime and limescale while maintaining the slip-resistance ratings required in wet, high-traffic areas. For a facility expected to serve generations of Adelaide swimmers, from squad training to learn-to-swim classes to community recreation, that combination of durability, hygiene and safety was non-negotiable.

Maintenance costs were another important consideration when flooring surfaces were selected for the project. Leading aquatic cleaning specialists estimate that Hytect-coated Area Pro concourse tile typically costs 57% less to clean than a commonly used slip resistant ceramic tile alternative. Based on a daily cleaning regime, cleaning cost savings could equate to more than $2.4 million over a five-year period for a facility of this size. For more information on cleaning costs read the article – Aquatic Planners: The design decision that could save you millions

On the pool concourse, the profiled Area Pro R12V4 ‘Grid’ was selected. The “V” rating denotes the displacement space between the surface underfoot and the tile’s drainage level, meaning Area Pro Grid continues to deliver reliable slip-resistance even as water splashes and pools across the concourse. The Area Pro series also appears in other formats and slip ratings throughout the amenities and on the pool hall walls.

Other highlights across the centre include Plural mosaics in the rich tones of Dark Oxide Red and Active Stone Grey, used in the amenities and steam rooms; the Chroma and Fresh series, used in the water play area; and Chroma 12.5 x 25 in Light Sand Grey, used as the pool tile and paired with Agrob Buchtal’s Finnland wet deck edge system.

For a closer look at how slip ratings inform tile selection in aquatic environments, see KLAY’s Specifier’s Guide to Tile Selection Part II: Pool Surrounds and Demystifying Slip Resistance.

Supporting a Project of State Significance

The Adelaide Aquatic Centre has already been recognised as a project of genuine state significance, awarded the City of Adelaide Prize for Design Excellence and named a finalist at the World Architecture Festival. Its success lies in the way it resolves a complex, multi-use brief into clear, intuitive spaces without losing sight of place, culture and community — and material selection played no small part in that outcome.

For KLAY, the project reflects the kind of collaboration the business is built around: sitting alongside architects and design teams from concept through to completion, and using deep product knowledge to help ambitious civic projects land on budget without sacrificing quality. As one of Australia’s most technically demanding aquatic builds in recent years, the Adelaide Aquatic Centre stands as a strong example of what’s possible when suppliers and designers work in partnership.