A swimming pool on the Garonne? Er, no, on the quayside!

Swimming from the quayside in the Gironde: a form of entertainment and an enriching experience in one. This public facility is the proposal of 2:pm architectures with dauphins architecture, whose architects have imagined a barge fitted out as a swimming pool, cruising along the Garonne.

The barge, 70 metres long, 16 metres wide and four metres deep, holds two pools. The main pool is 25 metres long and 11 metres wide, with a depth of 2.50 metres. The second is 11 metres long and 10 metres wide, with a depth of 1.40 metres. The barge is reinforced by a steel structure set on the hull and is finished with a timber deck.

Baignad_eau_torisée goes further than simply complementing the semi-Olympic pools of Bordeaux and the CUB. It offers an alternative to the conventional swimming pool and appeals to people who like to wander about without being stifled by crowds. The architects plan to place the containers on the bank whenever the barge moves.

“A system filtering water from the river to supply the pools is a further asset in the autonomy of this environmentally respectful facility. The lines of the pool are restrained and the signage on the containers is playful and apt, while its aesthetic draws on the industrial world and on cargo ships, through the play of the containers and of this moving barge, giving many residents the chance to swim in clean water with views of the varied and rich landscapes along the Garonne”.

The space taken up by the eight containers means the barge has to dock for the facility to work properly. Once moored, the eight bungalows unfold to form an enclosure and bring the pool onto dry land. But would it not have been wiser to build the ancillary spaces (changing rooms, showers) into the barge itself, to make the pool genuinely mobile? Or is that a different brief?

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