State of the art amenities including a stunning swimming pool and spa, karaoke pod, and giant aquarium are just some of the features available to residents of the innovative development at ‘Viadux’, Manchester’s new £300 million residential tower.

The Viadux site has a rich history, having once been the location of a Roman settlement. Manchester Central railway station opened on the site in 1880, with the Victorian brick arches serving as the train line until the station's eventual closure in 1969. These arches clearly have such a historical element and as part of a huge engineering project are now home to a breath-taking and unique swimming pool area.

In order to create a stunning setting for both the 20x6m swimming pool and adjoining 4x3m spa, the first stage of the project was to reinforce these existing historic grade-two listed railway arches, which was undertaken using 100 tonnes of structural steel. With the arches secured and the original brickwork in place the vaulted space really gives the pool area a majestic and atmospheric feel.

The pool installation was carried out by Cheshire based Portrait Pools. As one of the UK’s top luxury pool and spa builders, whether it is for residential, schools, hotels, holiday parks, health clubs or leisure centres, the Portrait Pools team offer a wealth of specialist knowledge and a professional approach to both the design and specification of swimming pools.

The Portrait Pools team both design and install pools and spas as turnkey projects from the initial concrete base through environmental control to the most intricate features such as moving floors and state-of-the-art filtration.

Portrait Pools have worked with Heatstar for around 30 years and consider them their preferred supplier for swimming pool environmental control. The Heatstar unit chosen for the Viadux project was the Heatstar XF EC 8000 Super+, a high efficiency heat recovery ventilation system. Centred upon a high efficiency “Cross Flow” plate, air to air heat recuperator, the XF EC utilises fresh air introduction to provide natural dehumidification and utilises the recuperator to maximise heat extraction from the expelled room air. The XF EC also utilises “Blue-EC” ultra-efficient, intelligent digital inverter fan technology and is fully compliant with the latest building control regulations for both residential and non-residential applications.

James Blomeley of Portrait Pools said “Heatstar and Portrait Pools share the same values of quality and excellence and have worked together for many years now, with Heatstar always being our ‘go to’ company for all our air handling needs. This is a decision is based on an excellent working relationship linked with consistently reliable, well-engineered products, with an aftersales service that we know our customers can rely on.

For this project the Heatstar team specified the XF EC unit which has performed perfectly and done everything it was installed to do”.