Exercise #2: Analysis of case study. Luana Parafina, Katarzyna Białkowska.

COPENHAGEN HORBOUR BATH

Copenahgen's harbour is in the midst of a transformation from an industrial port and traffic junction to being the cultural and social centre of the city. The Harbour Bath has been instrumental in this evolution. It extends the adjacent park over the water by incorporating the practical needs and demands for accessibility, safety and pogramatic flexibility. Rather than imitating the traditional Danish indoor swimming bath, the Harbour Bath offers an urban harbour landscape with dry-docks, piers, boat ramps, cliffs, playgrounds and pontoons. As a terraced landscape, the arbour Bath completes the transition from land to water, making it possible for the citizens of Copenhagen to go for a swinm in the middle of the city.

 

THE SWIMMING BATH Vs. THE BEACH

People go to the Harbour Bath in the way that pople go to the beach rather than the indoor swimming baths. Not necessarily to exercise, but primarly to socialize, play and enjoy the sun.This means that the water should not only be able to accomodate more interactive and playful activities than the focused (and pheraps lonesome) swimming back-and-forth the land should also be geared towards a more accomodating and generous environment.

 LANS Vs. WATER

With an indoor swimming bath you have some land and have to design the pools. With the harbour, we have some water and have to desing the land; a swimming bath in reverse. Since land is a factor  we have influence on as architects, it is in the interface between the two that we can create desiderable conditions. In a way, reinterpreting the water that is there by adding land.

- CONTINUITY

The Horbour Bath is the aquatic continuation of the Islandsbrygge harbour park. The Harbour Bath is a simple bended plate that connects the edge of the pier with the new harbour promenade and the water.

- SAFETY

The pools are laid out along radial lines extending from the center of the lifeguard tower, thus eliminating blind angles. The lifeguards can overview the entire bath from a single point. The diving pool expand in size to match the increasing jumping height. The minimum distance of 12 meters at the 5 m jump determines the geometry.

CAPACITY Vs. SAFETY

The Harbor Bath is free of charge, but for security reasons the lifeguards have to be able to control the amount of visitors. With the given water area, an equivalent swimming bath would be able to accomodate up to 600 people. The previous harbour bath allowed for only half of that amount. By increasing the land areas, but maintaining the water area within the security limit, we can extend the capacity to 600 by allowing people to chill in the sun while resting from the aquatic activities.

ICON

The Harbour Bath will - with its location in the centre of the harbour - be a symbol of the presence of leisure and aquatic culture in the heart of the city. Visble from "the main land" and the nearby ("The Long Bridge"), it should exploit the possibilty for being an icon of new possibilities that the reclaimed harbour offers to contemporary urban life.

 

- ACCESSIBILITY

A large ramp provides access to the entire facility including all pools. Strategically located handrails gives direct access to all pools for people with walking difficulties and the visually disabled.

- HARBOURSCAPE

The design of the Harbour Bath has emerged by super-imposing the concerns for accessibility, lifeguards lines of sight and the different aquatic activities changing needs for land and water. The harbour bath appears as a bended wooden deck tipping on the edge between land and water.

LANDSCAPE Vs. HARBOURSCAPE

When going to the beach on holidays, it is usually to seek out exotic landscapes: the wide, open beach, the intimate lagoon, the rocky shore with cliffs and islands to jump from, the calm water or the big waves, the sand in the surf where the water is shallow and sand castles can be built. Rather than imitating the indoor swimming bath, the Harbour Bath offers an urban harboour landscape with dry-docks, cranes, piers, boat ramps, buoys, playgrounds and pontoons.