engineering

Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre

Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre is a engineering topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre rather than just read about it. In short: The Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre is a public swimming pool complex located on the corner of High Street and Edgar Street, Glen Iris, Melbourne, Australia. Built in the 1960s by Australian architects Kevin Borland and Daryl Jackson, the Swimming Centre is considered to be a fine example of Brutalist architecture.

Key takeaways

Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre belongs to engineering; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre is a public swimming pool complex located on the corner of High Street and Edgar Street, Glen Iris, Melbourne, Australia. Built in the 1960s by Australian architects Kevin Borland and Daryl Jackson, the Swimming Centre is considered to be a fine example of Brutalist architecture. Originally built in 1927 as a municipal swimming baths, the facilities were renovated in 1967 by Borland and Jackson to accommodate for higher swimming participation numbers. It is named in honour of Prime Minister Harold Holt, the local member of parliament (representing the Division of Higgins) until his apparent drowning death while the facility was under construction.

Malvern Baths In 1924 the Malvern City Council voted to build the suburb's first Municipal Baths. The Education Department, who envisaged the implementation of the 'learn to swim' campaign, strongly supported the proposed location, a redundant tip site, on the corner of High Street and Edgar Street. Built at a cost of £10,476, the Malvern Baths was designed by the City Engineer, Barton Coutie. The baths included a wedge shaped pool and bathing boxes, and was designed using ideas gleaned from Coutie's examination of swimming pools in Harrow, London. The complex was officially opened by the Mayor Harry Wilmot in November 1927.

New 'Swimming Centre' In 1966 the Malvern Council commissioned architects Kevin Borland and Daryl Jackson to design a new swimming complex, as the Municipal Baths had become declared 'inadequate and outmoded' by the early 1960s. Set to be named the City of Malvern Olympic Swimming Centre, the name was changed after the apparent drowning death of Malvern's local member and Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt in December 1967. The name is cited as a "perhaps unintentional" example of Australian black humour. The centre was opened by prime minister and new local member John Gorton in March 1969. The new complex cost $600,000. In 1988 the centre underwent a renovation with the additions of a hydrotherapy pool, spa, sauna and multi-purpose room for aerobics and yoga classes. Further works were undertaken in 1998 to improve pool operations and an upgrade of the filtration systems. 2010 saw a $13 million redevelopment of the centre, expanding its new health and fitness facilities as well as its Aquatic areas. The Harold Holt Swim Centre has become one of Melbourne's most popular aquatic facilities with 400,000 visitors per year.

Architecture

The Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre is considered to be among the most notable examples of Brutalist architecture. It is classified by the National Trust and is listed on the Victorian Heritage Register.

Influences The Harold Holt swim centre is categorized as a brutalist building by Stuart Harrison in the journal Architect Victoria, Summer 2003. Harrison talks about the complexity of the centre's siting that echoes contemporary interests far advanced for its time in the 1960s. He goes on to discuss the building as a merger between different architectural styles that create a factory like feel within a suburban area much like Edmond and Corrigan's 1978 St Joseph's Chapel, Box Hill, Victoria, Australia. Harrison believes that the Harold Holt centre's sophistication could be read beyond its stylistic categorization as Brutalist, relating the sports function of the building to ancient gladiators: "Is it possible that Brutalism's usage for sports buildings is related to some sense of appropriateness to function? Sports as brutal, gladiatorial?"

Facilities

The Harold Holt Swimming Centre sits on a site of approximately 207 x 57 metres and consists of several pools with varying functionality and use. The indoor training pool and learner's pool are setback 40 metres from the south end of the site. There is a terrace located just north of these pools, a change rooms located to the west of the pools and a kiosk located east of these pools. Wedged between pathways that run along the perimeter of the site is a wading pool beyond which is the main pool that is approximately 49 × 14 metres in size. The centre also features a circular diving pool at the northern edge of the site. The complex consists of five pools, including an Outdoor 50m pool and an Indoor 25m pool enclosed by a large glass walled building. The outdoor pool became the first heated pool in Victoria for year-round swimming. It was also the first pool in Australia designed to metric standards. The complex also houses a hydrotherapy pool, spa, sauna and multi-purpose room for aerobics and yoga classes, which were additions in 1988. In 1998 further works were undertaken to improve pool operations, including an indoor pool 'wet deck' and upgrade of the filtration systems. In November 2010 the Harold Holt Swim Centre underwent a $13 million redevelopment phase. The centre now features new facilities such as the health club and three fitness studios hosting over 50 fitness classes per week. Aquatic areas were expanded to include a leisure pool with water features and learn to swim pool. The Harold Holt Swim Centre also has child care facilities.

Reception – located on the ground floor, enter via Edgar Street Outdoor 50m pool Indoor 25m pool Studio 1 – fitness classes Learners' pool – learn to swim lessons Leisure pool – fun aquatic play with water features Indoor toddlers' pool Hydrotherapy pool – in water ramp Accessible change rooms (located next to the hydro pool) Indoor female and male change rooms Sauna (indoor spa opening soon)

Awards RAIA Victorian Chapter, Citation in the Public Buildings category, 1969. Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre, Glen Iris (1968–69).

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In engineering, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre

In research: Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre appears in engineering research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1920s establishments in Australia, Brutalist architecture in Australia, Buildings and structures completed in 1927, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre in simple terms?

Why does Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre matter?

Because it connects several engineering ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Harold Holt Memorial Swimming Centre.