Pioneering natural swimming pool design for Switzerland

The winning design in the competition for the new community swimming pool complex in Gland, Switzerland came from Philippe Rizzotti Architects. The plans for this natural, sustainable pool aim to minimize the building’s impact on the natural environment of the site, bordered by a railway to the north, the back of a fire station to the south, a public facilities complex to the west and a beautiful landscape framed by the Alps and the Jura to the east.

The complex will be raised up three meters, making it possible to condense both parking space and the main swimming pool into one building, limiting the amount of ground space the building occupies and therefore its impact on the existing landscape. This also minimizes the visual impact of the parking area and provides access to the pool walls for leakage inspections.

The central swimming pool area will be surrounded by other recreational areas, both indoors and outdoors. The entrance, changing rooms, offices and a restaurant provide a barrier between the pool and the railway and street to the north, while a greenhouse to the south offers a wading pool, Turkish bathes, saunas and a diving area.

All three building envelopes are designed to meet specific needs, optimizing energy use while also taking advantage of natural resources. In fact, the main swimming pool is bathed in natural light thanks to its transparent roof, which retracts in summer and provides a double skin in winter for excellent insulation.
The pool itself boasts a natural filtration system, integrated with that of the other bathing areas. The rest of the design is also based on sustainable design principles, including the extensive use of prefabrication for a variety of custom elements, such as the changing room modules with wooden frames.


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