Above the Singapore sky

It’s one of the most remarkable high rise constructions in the world – the Marina Bay Sands Resort, topped by the stunning Sands SkyPark pool. The pool was recently the focus of a seminar at SPLASH! Asia in Singapore, conducted by Marcus Ng, Project Director of Innovez Sports Technologies, the Singapore-based design-and-build pool specialist who built the pool using pre-fabricated high-grade low carbon stainless steel.

Because stainless steel is durable and corrosion-resistant, it is ideal against the harsh conditions of an aquatic environment. Its corrosion-resistance stems from a coating which forms instantaneously in an oxidizing atmosphere, be it air or water or any liquids containing oxygen. This protective coating seals the stainless steel from other tarnishing elements in a mild aqueous environment.

In addition, stainless steel forms strong watertight enclosures that do not shrink, crack or spall like conventional pools. The flexibility of the metal accommodates virtually any desired shape or size.

Stainless steel is also very light in comparison to conventional pool building material, hence allowing greater engineering possibilities to accommodate more challenging pool designs. As with conventional pools, stainless steel pools can be tiled or lined. Alternatively, it can be polished for a stainless steel finish.

Marcus Ng, Project Director of Innovez Sports Technologies, says that stainless steel’s light weight, strength and flexibility made it the best solution for the SkyPark pool.

Comprising of three separate 50-metre long stainless steel enclosures, the pool is connected at each joint by four-tonne moveable terraces that function like “bridges”. Not only do these terraces allow for movement across its length, they also serve to connect three separates pools so they appear as one. In addition, the stainless steel enclosures are built on jacklegs that can be adjusted according to building settlement.

“Since the pool straddled three towers, we had to ensure that the solution could accommodate the different heights as the buildings settle. Building the pool on the hydraulic jacks was an immense benefit, it allowed us to adjust each jack – in a vast network of over 490 jacks under the pool – so that the levelling of the pool could be achieved,” says Ng.

The engineering ingenuity extends to many other aspects of the pool. A maze of flexible pipes and joints runs beneath the pool to accommodate building settlement and movement. The pool tiles were specially selected and flown in from Spain as they meet the deflection criteria of the stainless steel pool.

In spite of the complexity and magnitude of the project, the Sands SkyPark pool was built over a time span of a mere seven months. The speed of construction can be attributed in a large part to the prefabrication of the stainless steel. 

This is an extract from the April-May 2011 issue of SPLASH! Refer to the printed edition of the magazine for much more information and more great images courtesy of Innovez Sports Technologies.

Click here for more information on Innovez Sports Technologies.