Jane Withers on the new architecture for urban swimming


In our post-industrial cities, it's time we reclaim water sources for fun and social activity, argues self confessed aquaholic Jane Withers, who has curated a new exhibition on urban swimming


Copenhagen Harbour Bath in Islands Brygge CopenhagenIt is ironic that while we sited cities to be near water sources, we have treated them more or less like sewers since the industrial revolution, barricading, burying and polluting waterways that were once at the heart of urban life. Today although there seem to be sparkling waterfront developments everywhere, these usually stop abruptly at the water's edge. We seem to view rivers as blanks in the city waiting to be bridged or used as boat superhighways, rather than social spaces for people and leisure. The result is that huge areas of our cities have effectively been cordoned off from public use, but there is evidence of growing interest in a more human-centric approach to urban water environments.

Jane Withers
Jane Withers

Urban Plunge brings together a series of current projects for natural bathing that offer a new water-level perspective on the city. Beyond their primary function as places to swim safely in city centres, harbour baths, floating pools and natural bathing pools are also interesting because they touch on so many aspects of the city and city living, and challenge the way we use and think about the future of our urban waters

Thames baths

Visual of Thames Baths in detail at Blackfriars Bridge North Foreshore, visualiser 'Picture Plane'

The idea began to take shape about a year ago when I came across Thames Baths, an intriguing proposal for a natural bathing pool beneath the Victoria Embankment at Blackfriars that struck me as a wonderful counterpoint to the terrestrial urban environment. While the embankment streams with cars and suited people, beneath it the architects proposed a pocket of watery wildness, a refuge for swimmers and wildlife right in the midst of one of the city's busiest strips. As a self-confessed aquaholic, I began to think more about the possibilities such proposals offer for quietly enriching urban experience and the role of design and architecture in challenging our attitudes to the urban water environment. The exhibition was able to become a reality through the enthusiasm and support of Roca, and their interest in exploring the role of design in protecting the water environment.

Pond_Club

Visual showing Kings Cross Pond Club, (2013)

As much as these schemes share a common spirit, what is also interesting is their different approaches. While Thames Baths proposals for natural bathing pools at Blackfriars and Temple Stairs recall the wilderness of marshes and reed beds of pre-industrial London, + Pool's crisp design mimics Manhattan's grid, a giant chunk of the city floating in the East River. Conceived as an art installation, Of Soil and Water: King's Cross Pond Club explores how we can re-introduce natural cycles into the urban environment, and promises the tantalising vision of urbanites shedding their city armour to bathe in a man-made natural pond in the middle of central London's largest construction site. In contrast Copenhagen's harbour baths are sculptural promenades that create new links between land and water, social in-between spaces much like beaches.

Urban Plunge urban swimming

Kalvebod Waves. Bathers at the Kalvebod Waves; photographer Kasper Egeberg for Danish Architecture Centre (2013)

Over the past fifteen years, the Danish capital's harbour has been transformed from an industrial port to a cultural and social centre, and is now one of relatively few European cities, where it is safe to swim in the centre. The critical step to improved water quality was modernising the sewerage system and diverting waste water that used to discharge directly into the waterways during heavy rainfall. While Copenhagen's ambitious commitment to clean up the water environment is beyond the reach of most cities at the moment, there are other approaches. The starting point for the designers of + POOL was the realisation that if you can't clean the whole river, why not try and clean a part of it? The floating pool acts as a giant strainer filtering river water through its walls, so New Yorkers can swim in safe conditions within it. This filtration system is currently being tested on the Hudson River and the results published online daily.

Urban Plunge urban swimmingCopenhagen Harbour Bath in Islands Brygge Copenhagen


Urban Plunge urban swimming

Copenhagen Harbour Bath in Islands Brygge Copenhagen

Of course, the current tide of proposals for natural urban bathing environments is part of the larger wild swimming movement swelling in popularity in Britain and internationally. While the lido movement in the 1930s offered streamlined swimming pools as an improvement on bathing in ponds and rivers, now we hanker after the reverse - a sense of elemental connection within our urban environments.

Urban swimming

POOL Architects: Family & PlayLab Year: 2010-2016 Location: New York, NY, US

For a city lover, what could be more thrilling than bathing with views upstream to Tower Bridge or with Wall Street as a backdrop? A chance to explore our surroundings in a new way and revel in a watery underworld that we have lost touch with. But beyond the rejuvenating effects of city swimming, this swell of river baths challenges us to rethink how we use and abuse our urban waterways, helping us reconnect to these great rivers that are still all too often still treated as wastewaters in our cities.

Urban swimming

Bathers at Kalvebod Waves; Photo: Kasper Egeberg, Danish Architecture Centre, 2013

Jane Withers is a design consultant, curator, and co-founder of Wonderwater - an initiative to develop projects raising awareness of global water issues and design for a sustainable future. www.wonderwater.fi
www.janewithers.com

Urban Plunge - new designs for natural swimming in our cities
Curated by Jane Withers for Wonderwater
Roca London Gallery 11th September (2014) to 10th January (2015)








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