Access

Behnisch Archi­tekten desi­gned a diffe­ren­tiated, well-propor­tioned ensemble struc­tured around an inte­rior cour­tyard and land­scaped garden. This island of rela­xa­tion opens up on a number of levels with attrac­tive exte­rior areas and a sauna garden. A conti­nuous roof is stag­gered in height, brin­ging the struc­ture toge­ther and harmo­niously linking the various func­tional sections.

The surroun­ding glass facades make the Sportbad Fried­richs­hafen reco­gnizable already from the outside as a bathing land­scape. The divi­sion into a spacious bathing area with swim­ming pool and children’s pool on the ground floor and a more inti­mate upper floor with sauna, cate­ring and staff rooms is also easy to read.

Flooded with light, the foyer of the aquatic sports center welcomes visi­tors with a plea­sant atmo­sphere; it also gives indi­vi­dual guests and school and club groups suffi­cient space to meet up and spend some time. The trans­pa­rent design provides views through to the pool area and lets visi­tors get their initial bearings.

Courtyard

Arranged around this inte­rior cour­tyard are the bathing areas, with a textile steam bath (swim­suits required), the external swim­ming channel, an area for babies and todd­lers featuring various attrac­tions, a lear­ners’ pool, a swim­mers’ pool, and an eighty-meter water slide. The pool for schools and clubs has an inte­grated diving section with one-meter, three-meter, and five-meter boards, and part of the floor can be raised or lowered.

The swimming area

All heated benches are covered with round mosaics not least because a specific advan­tage of this mate­rial is that it clings direc­tion­lessly and homo­ge­neously to such curved struc­tures like a tailor-made suit.

The chan­ging and sani­tary rooms are deco­rated bright yellow to compen­sate atmo­sphe­ri­cally for the absence of daylight.

Sauna world

The cate­ring faci­li­ties are situated on the upper level too, between the swim­ming and sauna areas; these can be used by visi­tors to both sections. An elegant open stair­case links not only the diffe­rent func­tions but also both levels at this point.

With regard to formats and loca­tions, the floor tiles of the Trias series of Agrob Buchtal were used iden­ti­cally in the sauna area of the upper floor as in the bathing land­scape on the ground floor. The only diffe­rence is the slightly darker colour iron ore, which, toge­ther with the gene­rally warmer and eart­hier range of colours, creates a cosy room atmo­sphere.

Conclusion

The Sportbad Fried­richs­hafen is a show­case example of how strong the emotional effect of ceramic wall and floor tiles can be. The great variety of colours, forms and formats in this project is never an end in itself, but always part of a sensuous holi­stic overall compo­si­tion, which lives not least from details that are initi­ally hardly noti­ceable, such as, for example, the letter plates made of floor tiles from the series Trias of Agrob Buchtal, which indi­cate the depth of the water at the pool edges.

Instead of using stan­dard off-the-shelf stain­less steel panels, the archi­tects wanted to use tiles of diffe­rent colours to create a homo­ge­neous appearance. After cutting out the nume­rals using water jet tech­no­logy, the parts were reas­sem­bled, pointed and inte­grated as “ceramic inlays” with a casual natu­ral­ness — one of many proofs for the successful symbiosis of unob­tru­sive crea­ti­vity and archi­tec­tural strin­gency.

Laid-back.