Lee Valley Ice Centre

The Lee Valley Ice Centre opened in June 2023, and is one of only three venues in the UK to have two Olympic sized rinks. The much-loved former venue served the community for 37 years as a space for people of all ages to meet, socialise, and exercise. The new venue has been a welcome addition to sport and leisure facilities in the area since it reopened.

Expedition was commissioned by the Lee Valley Regional Park Authority to develop a lean structural design for the complex building, minimising embodied carbon while maintaining the architectural vision and operational requirements. Its efficient long-span trusses are designed to balance serviceability and strength requirements while allowing building services to be integrated in a material and cost-effective way.

The construction works were designed to be built in a number of phases, working around the existing building to maintain continuity of the existing ice skating facility and minimise operational downtime. Vibro-concrete columns form an unusual ground improvement solution, highly integrated into the wider structure. The atypical requirements of an operational ice rink are balanced with a lean and carbon-efficient structure in perfect harmony.

We are proud to have been involved the design of the Circular Water Strategy, which aims to decrease water consumption, protect the site from flooding, and use nature-based solutions to create a biodiverse rich environment.

Up to 16,000 litres of ice is scraped from the rinks daily to keep them in optimum condition for skating. Our team implemented an innovative constructed wetland system to treat this melted ice water before greywater recycling for use in the building and irrigation. This solution is set to prevent millions of litres of water from being discharged into the combined sewer every year and includes a Consumption Reduction Strategy for the Centre.

The constructed wetland consists of a gravel filter medium planted with a rich mix of aquatic plants. Ice-melt water is filtered, and pollution is removed as it passes slowly through the reed bed, significantly reducing the Centre’s demand on potable water supply. This wetland also treats the water so that it can be conveyed into two ponds in front of the building, enhancing the landscape at the front of the building and improving biodiversity, before it is subsequently discharged into the River Lee.