B4 | Lido Hangeweiher
"Light, air, sun, hygiene" is probably the most famous promise of modernism that has left a lasting mark on architecture. No other building typology fulfills this promise more completely than a lido, an urban outdoor swimming pool. This typology, considered one of the most democratic, embodies social progress and makes the luxury of summer recreation immediately accessible to all strata of society. Invented as a typology on the eve of the 20th century, the open-air swimming pool was intended to normalise the common public bathing of both sexes and put an end to the prude bourgeois morality of the 19th century.
The Hangeweiher outdoor pool in Kaiser-Friedrich Park in the south of Aachen is the only one of its kind in the city region. As early as the 1850s, the first Aachen swimming facility existed on the site. In the 1920s, a 100-meter-long pool was built for sports swimming. In 1970s, it was divided into two separate pools, which can still be seen today. Both pandemic and heat waves of recent years have shown the special importance of the facility for the city. At the same time, running an outdoor pool is energy demanding. Given these new challenges, what might the future of open-air swimming look like?
Taking the existing spatial program as a starting point, we invite students to imagine a new concept for the Hangeweiher swimming pool and develop an architectural typology that offers spatial solutions for different leisure activities, be it swimming, sunbathing, playing or wellness. In this B4 project, we put the medium of water in the foreground of the architectural design and let it guide us.
Project start: 03.11.2023 at 10:00 at the Department Bauplan
Examiner: Prof. Sabine Brück-Dürkop (Bauplan),
Co-Examiner: Prof. Alexander Markschies (Kunstgeschichte)
Supervisors: Prof. i.V. Fred Humblé (Bauplan); Dr. Dasha Kuletskaya (Bauplan)
Image: "Spa shell" in Sassnitz, Architect: Dietmar Kuntzsch, Ingineer: Ulrich Müther, built in 1988