Dornbirn’s indoor swimming centre was originally built on its parkland site in the late 1960s, and since then has come to be one of the city’s most recognisable landmarks. Stories from the baths occupy a special place in the hearts and minds of the region’s residents. In extending the baths, the urban character of the villa-like building on its own garden was to be preserved. The iconic monopitch roof has also been kept, but insensitive alterations to the original structure have been removed.
Both the range of facilities and the size of the swimming complex have been doubled in the new scheme. A low, elongated extension adds sports- and parent-and-child pools to the original multi-purpose and non-swimmer facilities. Old and new is unified by an open gallery: a rest area and a place for spectators. The gallery serves to visually connect but physically separate the distinct functions all housed within a single large space.
The structural elements are painted white, while fixtures and fittings are painted black to clearly differentiate fixed from variable. A seamless polished asphalt floor is used throughout the pool areas.
Themes of swimming beneath a protective roof, swimming in a park and swimming in a town are explored spatially and through the targeted use of materials. Transparency is a consistently-applied architectural idea in the
