Riehen natural pool

Entrance building

The Naturbad Riehen (also Naturbad am Schlipf ) is an outdoor swimming pool with biological water treatment that was opened in June 2014 in the municipality of Riehen near Basel in Switzerland and was designed by the architects Herzog & de Meuron .

history

In 1898 a conventional outdoor pool was opened at roughly the same location, which was later rebuilt and expanded several times. In 1979 the Herzog & de Meuron office won the competition for a new Riehener Bad, a combined indoor and outdoor swimming pool, but this project - one of the architects' first ever - was never realized. In 2007 the old bathroom had to give way to the toll free road . In the same year, the office of Herzog & de Meuron was commissioned to plan a new outdoor swimming pool, which incorporated elements of the 1979 design. The architects' idea of building a swimming pool with a biological filter circuit instead of a conventional pool with mechanized and chemical water treatment was approved by the municipality. Construction work began in 2010, and in June 2014 the Riehen natural pool, one of the first pools in Switzerland with natural water treatment (i.e. without chemical additives), was opened. Part of the construction costs were borne by the Federal Republic of Germany.

swimming pool

Riehen natural pool

Riehen am Wiesengriener natural swimming pool

The swimming pool is designed as a contiguous bathing lake surrounded by plants. It lies over the tunnel ceiling of the toll free route. The company building with café and cloakrooms as well as the seating and lounging areas and the paths in the bathing area are all made of wood. The total water area is 2075 square meters, of which 1040 square meters are used for regeneration.

The number of visitors in the first year of operation was over 42,622 - on peak days up to 2000 - above all expectations, despite the inconsistent weather, which led to capacity bottlenecks. In 2015, the number of visitors rose to almost 70,000. Due to the great interest in functionality and architecture, guided tours are also offered.

architecture

The design is based on wooden Basel Rhine swimming pools. The complex opens to the river to the south, to the west it is shielded by a wooden wall from the neighboring private property. This enclosure made of light larch wood encloses the entrance building with a visitor café in the east and develops into a 200-meter-long, roofed solarium in the north and west: Here there are loungers, showers and changing rooms. This framing emphasizes the bathing lake in the middle.

“In times when ecology can be understood as a megatrend, the Riehen natural pool represents a new understanding of a swimming pool. Herzog & de Meuron correspond to this concept with an architectural solution which, in view of the other projects of the office, is convincing with its appropriate modesty and naturalness. "

Award

In 2015, the International Olympic Committee and the International Association of Sports and Leisure Facilities presented the Riehen natural swimming pool with the biennial Gold Award . This award is given every two years to pioneering sports facilities. This award is exceptional in that almost all of the other award winners are major projects, which in terms of investment volume often make up a multiple of the Riehen project.

literature

Sibylle Meyrat: Well bathed. In: Yearbook z'Rieche . 2008. ( online )
Anne Nagel, Klaus Spechtenhauser: Riehen. Swiss Art Guide , Series 95, No. 942-43. Bern 2014, ISBN 978-3-03797-126-0 , p. 79.
Ralph Schindel: A pearl for Riehen. In: Yearbook z'Rieche. 2014, pp. 86-89. ( online )