Aalborg Swimming Center

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Location: Denmark
Square Footage: 51,000
Type: Competitions
Year: 2001

While swimming, one actively alters a fluid landscape. This action requires at least two intense commitments: the first, to a physical exertion in the interest of exercise, repetitive motion, and energetic release; the second, to an emotional willingness to suspend oneself in a liquid that envelops, pacifies, and also destroys. This project presents users of the Aquacenter with a dual image of dream and fantasy: the vision of people engaging (but not breaking!) the surface of water, while others puncture that same, transmutable volume. From the exterior of the building, the pool appears as a sheer surface on which participants can walk, undisturbed by activity. However, these people illogically float on a material physically unsuited to any such foot traffic, and the visualization of a vast volume of presumably thick water is subverted by the realization that in places it is actually very thin. Similarly, the underside of the pool appears as a sculptural surface, exposed as a thick architectural tool, honest in its appearance. And so, a diving pool abuts a circuit pool, which abuts a barely-submerged walking path, which abuts a wading pool. On the lower level of the Aquacenter, the underside of the pool acts as a ceiling to the spa and locker rooms. Access to the main swimming space is gained by a staircase ascending into an area surrounded on all sides by water. In this way, a visitor encounters the ‘underside of the ocean’, and replicates the act of resurfacing, but at a point prior to getting wet. This initial engagement with the physical construct of the building concludes with the physical act of swimming and with the strange, fascinating illusion of people walking on water. 

This project won a second mention award from the AIA NY Chapter in the Projects category in 2002.

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