European accolade for world’s longest swimming pool
The Flussbad project has won the Holcim Awards Gold 2011 Europe for a project to turn the centre of Berlin into the world’s longest swimming pool.
The designers of the project intend to transform an unused arm of the River Spree into a natural 745m “swimming pool”. The facility is the equivalent of seventeen Olympic swimming pools with an average width of 28.8m, water depth around 2.2m, and features a 780m-long reed bed filtration system.
The 3.9ha site includes quay walls converted into generous stairs, similar to Indian ghats, providing access to the swimming pool, with functional lockers and change rooms integrated unobtrusively into the terrain.
Water entering the upper section of the river arm is purified through a 1.8ha reed bed natural reserve with sub-surface sand bed filters. A barrage at the lower end of the system prevents the backflow of unfiltered water from the main body of the river, and overflow outlets for the city’s mixed sewage network are channelled beneath the system.
Since the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, the precinct experienced a 75 per cent increase in resident population and an equivalent loss of open space. The Flussbad project will provide a public urban recreation space for both residents and tourists adjacent to the UNESCO World Heritage site, Museuminsel (Museum Island).
The jury commended this project due to its direct and very strong impact on the quality of urban life in an area of Berlin which has been previously overlooked. The project questions the ownership of the river itself that is currently used exclusively for shipping and drainage purposes but not for public activities. They said the idea of providing a public facility is convincing, feasible and easily transferable.
It is complemented with an ecological concept that supplies unpolluted water and with a simple design that adapts respectfully to the historic context of the adjacent buildings. The jury says it is an excellent example of what can be achieved within challenging inner city areas that possess a rich tradition and cultural heritage where the local public has often been overlooked.
Type of project: Landscape, urban design and infrastructure projects
Start of construction: January 2018
Main creator: Tim Edler, realities united, Germany
Further creator: Jan Edler, realities united, Germany, Denise Dih, DODK, Germany
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