Project Contact
Richard Coulson
Ali Farmer
Bek Germein
Cecile Viollet
James Ryan
Justin Bennett
Kim Huat Tan
Shane Horswill
Travis Keys
Palm Beach Aquatic & Community Centre
Palm Beach, Queensland
The Palm Beach Aquatic and Community Centre has been transformed into a lively, multi-use destination that caters to the health, fitness, and recreational needs of the southern Gold Coast community.
The redeveloped centre features a state-of-the-art aquatic complex, a vibrant community centre and expanded fitness facilities, all designed with a subtropical architectural approach that embraces the unique culture and climate of the southern Gold Coast.
Originally built between 1977 and 1981 located off Thrower Drive and backing onto Currumbin Creek, this beloved community hub has undergone a comprehensive redevelopment to meet the demands of the growing population. The result is a modern, multi-purpose venue that is truly inclusive, and offers spaces for people of all ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
The Centre is driven by its community.
The City of Gold Coast’s vision was to create a space where everyone—regardless of age, mobility, or neurodiversity—feels welcome and supported. Going beyond compliance, the design incorporates enhanced access provisions that exceed Australian standards, ensuring all pools and community facilities are accessible to people with diverse physical and cognitive needs.
The Centre now supports a wide range of users, from allied health professionals and surf lifesaving groups to school programs, fitness enthusiasts and casual visitors, with both aquatic and dry activity spaces.
COX Director, Richard Coulson
We appreciate the community letting us take the venue offline for two years to make these improvements. It reopens as a substantially new place, recomposed with the surrounding landscape, more accessibility, more water bodies, more shade and shelter and we would suggest a lot more joy.
The upgraded aquatic facilities include four new pools: an indoor warm water program pool, a heated indoor learn to swim pool, a 25-metre outdoor pool, and a children’s water play area, complementing the existing 50-metre outdoor pool.
The new community centre offers a multi-functional hall, meeting rooms, a dance studio, a crèche, and a café—all designed to foster community interaction and engagement.
The design celebrates the landscape setting; its open and transparent architectural form draws in the surrounding parklands and wetlands and captures coastal breezes. An elevated podium forms a series of shaded verandahs, connected on all sides to expansive natural surroundings. The podium conceals new basement parking and extends Enhanced Access spaces which maximise community activity and wellness. The uplift in equitable access has been transformative for the Community, responding to all ages and all abilities.
The architecture is open and playful, celebrating the relaxed lifestyle that is synonymous with the southern end of the Gold Coast. The building’s material palette is timeless and durable, responding to the coastal environment. Endemic species and sustainable materials mean the centre embodies the region’s climate and lifestyle, ensuring it continues to serve as a community hub for generations to come.
This project was completed in partnership with Liquid Blu for the City of Gold Coast.