chwialka-plywalnia-02-min

Location: Chwiałka City Pool

The city swimming pool on the Chwiałkowskiego street (commonly referred to as Chwiałka) is one of the biggest complexes of its kind in the Wielkopolska province. The building was erected at the beginning of the 1960s, in the purist modernist style, and its form references the so called folk classicism, forcefully encouraged at the time. The main building houses a swimming pool with audience stands, children’s swimming pool, gyms, and a small hotel. The facility also has a complex of outdoor summer swimming pools which covers almost 45,000 square metres! For years the Chwiałka swimming pools have been a place of relaxation for many generations of Poznań’s residents. In here, many people have learnt to swim. Even though waterparks with colourful slides and numerous amenities pop up all around the city, Chwiałka still has its fans. For most residents of Poznań, the complex of swimming pools is one of the iconic spots in the city. During hot summer days, the swimming pools are visited by even 2.5 thousand people a day.

 

ORGANIZERS

The swimming pool is a municipal facility financed by the city of Poznań.  It is administered by POSiR (Poznań Sport and Recreation Centres) POSiR facilities were established in order to satisfy the common needs of Poznań’s residents in terms of sports and recreation.

ACTIVITIES

The outdoor swimming pool is opened throughout the summer season, from the 15th of June until the 31st of August, the indoor swimming pools is out of use at that time. Mainly sports events are organised at the swimming pool, these include:  Swimmers’ Championship, or children’s triathlon. During summer holidays, numerous summer day-camps visit the swimming pool paying a symbolic admission of 1 zloty, and organised groups.  However, it is mainly a place of relaxation, where the residents can spend summer holidays and organise their free time by picnicking, bathing, sunbathing or using the basketball court.

 

USERS

In the summer season, during the beautiful hot days the swimming pool is visited by whole families.  In the morning it is usually children, often with organised groups and summer day-camps. In the after-work hours (3 – 4 pm), there is an influx of parents with children. Quite often also grandparents accompany their grandchildren. Youth and students constitute the least numerous group. Many swimmers and members of sport clubs use the swimming pool outside the peak hours in order to train. The stands opposite the swimming pool offer a perfect vantage point for parents and grandparents who can watch their offspring.  Many women treat this place as a perfect sunbathing spot due to it being „closer to the sun”.

NEEDS

There is a shortage of recreational infrastructure – although there are deckchairs for hire.  A lot of people come with their own blankets and towels. Residents wishing to hide from the sun seek shelter in the shade of the trees, shaded places are too sparse.  There are few tables and benches. Moreover, there is not enough play areas for children – and the demand is significant. Apart from the 50 metre swimming pools with the stands, the bathing site includes also a smaller swimming pool for children, with a slide, interactive pool with water attractions and a volleyball pitch.

FINAL RESULTS:

A group of students with the help of tutors, the Slovakian architects Ondrej Marko and Juraj Hariš from the 2021 architekti office, decided to draw attention of the visitors to the historic stands and bring back its former glory. In their design, the students used the effects of optical illusion, finishing part of the stands with new wooden seating in such a way as to form an enormous logo of Poznań – a star, when looked from a specific point near the pool.

This place was marked with wooden paving elements, placed in between the existing elements of the surface. The designers themselves admitted that the task was difficult since most of the measuring and cutting was done directly on location by trail-and-error. Nevertheless, the desired outcome was achieved and now in the hot days the stands is a favourite relaxation spot for the residents visiting the bathing site.

 

 

Student participants:

Szymon Kuś, Michał Pęczak, Viktor Toth, Olga Gumienna, Zuzia Spaltabaka, Dominika Barlová, Radka Komrsová, Klára Walterová, Anna Samszi Bakos.

Tutor: 2021 architekti - Ondrej Marko and Juraj Hariš

Architects from Slovakia

The 2021 architekti office has been established in 2012 in Bratislava by Peter Lényi, Ondrej Marko, and Marian Lucký. The office focuses mainly on executing public buildings, and designs in the public space which have a wider social character.The ambition of the office is to shape the way forward in terms of our perception of architecture and everyday environments. Our architects seek this in two ways: participating in contests declared by public investors and organising contests themselves.Apart from design work in strongly differentiated scales, the architects willingly participate in workshops and self-build urban actions. Their shelves at the office feature, apart from organizers full of design documents and architecture literature, also drills, polishing machines, and containers full of bolts.