The concept of the Palace of Water Sports was developed by the architectural bureau ARCHINFORM in preparation for the World Summer Student Universiade, which was to be held in Yekaterinburg in 2023.

The Universiade is the largest international student sports competition held by the FISU International University Sports Federation. For this global event, the whole complex of buildings was designed in Novokoltsovsky district of Yekaterinburg, and it is already being completed - the Universiade Village, which includes a large number of different facilities:
- Water Sports Palace
- community center
- athletics stadium
- dormitories for athletes
- medical center

Also, various sports grounds and recreation areas will be located on this territory - we can say that an entire city with a saturated sports, technical, residential and social infrastructure will be erected.

The largest and key facility of the Universiade is the Palace of Water Sports, built by the architectural bureau ARCHINFORM, which is unparalleled in Russia! Suffice it to say that the building has the area of more than 100 x 200 m and includes three swimming pools at once: a 25-meter pool for diving competitions, a 50-meter training pool and a 50-meter demonstration pool. Also, inside there are children's pools, sports and gymnastics halls, cafes and lounges for athletes. This combination of functions and scale makes the building completely unique. Russian and international level competitions can be held here, as well as training sessions for athletes.

There are not many similar structures in the world. Therefore, before designing, the ARCHINFORM team of architects investigated similar objects in Baku, Kazan and Budapest. It turned out that such facilities do not have a single generally accepted planning scheme, all of them are planned in different ways. But we have summarized Russian and foreign experience and developed our own original architectural and planning solution.

The Palace of Water Sports is not just a sports facility, but a sports and entertainment one. The total capacity of the stands is more than 5,000 seats. As a result, the building has complex logistics. It takes into account the international FISU requirements for holding competitions, which strictly regulate the conditions for using this building for different categories of visitors: athletes, spectators, judges, staff. During the operation of the building, they should not intersect with each other. The project proposes a multi-level system for separating human flows, so there are many entrance zones along the entire perimeter: guest, service and technical. The first level houses the building's entrances for athletes, referees, staff and the press. The entrances for spectators are organized from the second tier, from open pedestrian galleries located along the long facades.

The architectural and figurative solution of the Water Sports Palace reveals the theme of water and waves. The main volumes have large glazed surfaces. At the same time, several central facades are made with a reverse slope, giving the dynamics of the entire composition of the building. Triangular matrix of panels with parametric fractal grid of holes forming wave-like patterns is used on large blind planes. This technique is combined with facade elements having volumetric plastic made of embossed copper-colored 3D panels. Glimmers of water, sea foam, sand and stones are the colors and textures present in the image of the building.

Of particular importance in the design of the Water Sports Palace for our bureau was the dual purpose of this large sports building, or rather its use in the Universiade heritage mode. In fact, we have developed two scenarios for using the planning solution. When after holding major international competitions, many premises are painlessly redesigned into additional spaces for visitors, children's sections and health centers. Thus, residents of the city receive a unique social and sports complex for the development of children's and youth sports.