North Beach Bathers Pavilion, Wollongong

Originally opened in November 1938, the heritage listed North Beach Bathers Pavilion in Wollongong underwent a $12 million refurbishment to provide modern change areas and amenities, lifeguard facilities and a new cafe, all of which required extensive hydraulic services.

The pavilion has been meticulously renovated to the highest standards, with the state-of–the-art finishes, bringing the 1930’s building back to its former glory.

A key challenge for the project was designing water, sewer, gas and rainwater harvesting systems within an existing building, and not affecting the heritage significance.  This required an understanding of what works were permissible in a heritage building and the ability to consider alternatives. It also necessitated working in close collaboration with the architect, to facilitate minor changes to the design.

In order to reduce the impact on the environment and minimize potable water usage, a rainwater harvesting system was a key element of the design.  The system needed to be located in the underfloor space, but above the maximum tide level.  This was achieved, and the collected water used to flush toilets.