Architecture and nature in a municipal swimming pool

German firm KTP Generalplaner GmbH has designed the complete makeover of the outdoor municipal swimming pool in Waldkirch, a town in Germany's Black Forest. Their project has turned an ordinary pool into a go-to leisure centre that respects the natural environment.



Creating a streamlined, fluid transition between interiors, exteriors and green spaces. In a nutshell, this is the project by the architects Kauffman Theilig & Partner (KTP) to revamp the outdoor municipal swimming pool in Waldkirch, a town near Freiburg. An operation that involved the collaboration of about thirty companies and professionals to give the community a new focal point in summer.





The design delivered by KTP aims at improving environmental performance and at the same time setting up a dialogue between structure and context, thereby overcoming the clear functional distinctions of the original pool. So, a new building with organic shapes was constructed to form the entry. The bare concrete building with fine detailing references the natural hillsides surrounding the centre.





The revamped centre - “s Bad” in German (“the bath”) - welcomes visitors with both new materials, concrete as well as dark timber furnishings in the cabins and the new lounge building, and with four swimming pools. The architects focused in particular on the zone for non-swimmers - three intersecting rings dedicated to wellness, with spa baths - and to fun and games with water slides. They created two highly iconic diving towers with 1- and 3-metre diving boards over a dedicated pool.



All the technical systems were overhauled to improve the structure's environmental performance: each pool has its own separate water circulation system so pumps can be tweaked to save on power; water is heated by a solar system that is supplemented by heat exchangers when the weather is bad; the interiors enjoy natural ventilation and extractor fans are only used in the cabins and showers. Not only that, but it is easy to get to Waldkirch - harmonious combination of contemporary architecture and nature - by public transport, bike or on foot, to drive sustainable viability.

Christiane Bürklein

Progetto generale: Kauffman Theilig & Partner (KTP)
Luogo: Waldkirch, Germania
Anno: 2016
Immagini: courtesy of beton.org