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The building blends harmoniously into the natural landscape of the park with a sculptural roof and transparent surfaces
Konstanz is a university city in Germany that lies on the shores of the lake of the same name. Its pool was destroyed in 2015 by a fire, leaving a large void not only on the site, which is nearby the Schwakentenwald and Mainauwald forests, but also in the lives of city residents.
Immediately after the destruction brought by the fire, the city held a design competition, which was won by the firm Behnisch Architekten, giving the community not just a public pool but also a place to gather, play sports, hang out, and relax.
The new facility constitutes a true water park: with a wide range of covered pools – two 25-meter pools for swimming, a pool with a slide, a pool for toddlers, a pool for aquatic games, a diving pool, and a pool for beginners – the building makes sports, relaxation, and fun possible for every citizen.
Nestled in a context of great natural beauty and calm, surrounded by fields and trees, the architecture fits in to the natural landscape while highlighting it and taking advantage of its potential. To that end, the architects designed the roof as the union of three different green roofs that form a composition with a sculptural charm, while blending into the context. Below the roof, large, glazed walls dematerialize the contours of the volume, lightening the composition and flooding the interior space with light and views of the outdoor landscape. The composition of forms and choice of materials have ensured that, despite the vast dimensions of the structure, the architecture appears pleasantly minute and discrete from the outside.
The three different roofs were designed to adapt to the needs of the aquatic spaces, generating a fascinating interplay of slopes and volumes inside, further highlighted by the wooden finishing of the ceiling, and giving each pool a unique proportion of its own.
The large windows that constitute the perimeter of the architecture offer views of the surrounding park, conveying a sense of calm and relaxation to guests, and giving the pool area an ever-changing appearance over the course of the day, which varies with the changing of the hours and the seasons.
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The general structure has a light, muted tone, which constitutes a neutral base to which brighter tones were added. The transparent windows, the ceilings with red spruce slats, the light ceramic and smooth concrete surfaces pervade every environment, creating a connection with natural landscape outside. Moving through the space, full of games and surprises, visitors find themselves in front of colored and immersive corners: like the three slides in three different colors, the bright red of the mosaic that clads the Turkish bath and the changing room furnishings, the pool covering in shades of blue, whose mosaic creates designs and shapes, the salmon pink accents of the benches that articulate the space and yellow dots for the slides and ladders in the toddler pools.
Beyond the design, the architects paid great attention to the sustainability of the project. The roof has photovoltaic panels and the building’s heating comes from co-generation plants and waste heat from the pools and showers, saving approximately 171 tons of carbon dioxide emissions every year.
Location: Constance; Germany
Architects: Behnisch Architekten
Completion: 2022
Client: Bädergesellschaft Konstanz Mbh
Surface: 10.172 m2
Consultant
Landscape: Behnisch Architekten & Ulrich Stief Landschaftsarchitekt
Structural Engineering: Fischer + Leisering Ingenieurgesellschaft mbH
MEP: L&P Beratende Ingenieure
Facade: IFP Gerhard Weber & Partner GmbH
Photography by David Matthiessen, courtesy of Behnisch Architekten
