Photo Credit: Fraser Valley Metropolitan Recreation District
Natatorium—it’s not a word that rolls easily off the tongue. It rarely comes up in daily usage; people generally don’t say, “Hey, let’s go to the natatorium.” They just say, “Let’s go to the pool.”
A natatorium exists in many different configurations. An indoor pool in a facility that also features other associated spaces, such as basketball courts, programming rooms, or gymnastics facilities, can be called a natatorium. There are also indoor, enclosed places that cater primarily to aquatic activities, such as recreational swimming, team swimming, water aerobics, therapeutic pools, spray grounds, water slides, or a combination of any or all of these. A natatorium can also have associated support rooms, such as lavatories, offices, and locker rooms.
Regardless of the form a natatorium takes, there is one specific system that, if it isn’t engineered, designed, installed, used, and maintained properly, can be a major operational and maintenance nightmare—the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system.