Swimming pool Vukovar | Idis Turato

Swimming pool Vukovar is located on the site of the old, open-air swimming complex in Borovo naselje, which had been destroyed during the war of the 1990s. Work on the new project began in the far away 2004 and in the subsequent 13 years the complex was designed, developed, redesigned, reworked, constructed, demolished, suspended and relaunched, finalized and concluded, tested and appraised and, at last in 2017, open to the public.
The former, torn down pool in Borovo naselje was not only a sport and recreation center, it was a place of encounter, introduction, fellowship, the place of social interaction of people from Vukovar as well as their outside visitors, who chose the plains of Slavonia as their summer destination.
 
On the site of the previous swimming complex architects faced an entirely devastated rectangular plot, positioned within the defined recreation area: bordering a big sports hall to the south and to the north, an outdoor tennis center as well as a football court with accompanying facilities.
 
The new Swimming pool Vukovar is designed as a compact building intended for a variety of activities and programs related to water sports. The swimming pool building is a composite structure and a heterogeneous assembly which simultaneously opens up and closes off; it accommodates, rises and drops, floats, sinks, transforms; communicates with all of its users. Athletes, swimmers, water polo teams and synchronized swimming clubs as well as amateurs, recreational swimmers, non-swimmers, persons with disabilities, bathers, sports fans and enthusiasts can utilize the space in their own specific and autonomous ways, thereby purposefully programming this multipurpose construction. Different entrances, corridors, walkways, halls and rooms compound into designed flows and passageways, defined by their various usage routines. The building expressively but purposefully shapes and lends itself to its variegated customers.
 
The west side of the building is a multi-channeled entrance into the complex. Apart from the main ground-floor public entrance, there are two separate entrances on the flanks of the facade which serve to divide the regular users: the athletes and recreational users, by means of a wide ramp on the right, dive into the underground of the building with its locker rooms, while sports and fitness club members use the entrance on top of a large staircase on the left.
On the opposite, that is the east side of the building, which looks on the river Danube and the access road with parking for users, one comes upon a ramp which leads to yet another entrance to pool facilities. Towering over the east facade is a large vent tower/chimney, at the same time a spatial marker, a totem and a colossal spotlight for the outdoor swimming pools.
 
The eave made by the already mentioned elevated entrance on the north side of the complex creates a long ground-floor porch along which are retail spaces for sports clubs and sports goods stores - meant not only for swimming gear but fishing, cycling and other kinds of sports and recreation equipment.
To the south of the building is the outdoor swimming area with a smaller training pool, appropriate for use by non-swimmers, and a larger sized pool for play, recreation and leisure. The large pool is equipped with a water slide and is flanked by the entrance ramp and the tall lighting vent tower/chimney. Next to the pool one finds the outdoor changing area, intended for the summer use of the outdoor pool, independent of activities taking place in the indoor space of the complex. In the summer months, the outdoor pools paired with the adjacent tennis courts and facilities, offer the Vukovar community a varied and integrated recreational experience. 
 
The indoor swimming area holds the main pool basin, 50 x 22 meters, and the entrance foyer with stands extending along the entire length and height of the building. The foyer is the place where the users are admitted, informed and directed but it is also a venue for events unrelated to water and sports. The entrance hall is immediately connected to the catering facilities as well as the sports clubs’ spaces and offices. The café has been envisioned on two levels, connecting the foyer in its full height, thus bringing together visitors to the entrance hall and patrons of sports and fitness facilities.
 
The basins of both the indoor and the outdoor pools are of stainless steel. The construction of the stands and the ground floor is executed in reinforced concrete, while the rest of the pool amenities are a steel structure. The exposed framework and the specifically designed thermal and electrical installations are the dominant design elements of the space. The entirely open, connected and thermodynamically balanced interior becomes a unified venue for sports and social activities.
 
The steel structure, monumental installations, complex systems of ventilation, heat and moisture conditioning, lighting, the speed tracking and timing technology, smart systems and the building surveillance - are all painted in anthracite grey. In strong contrast, the public spaces, stands, hallways and corridors are yellow, coming together as an uninterrupted surface and creating a continuous space to be traversed in all directions and used for a variety of activities. The signage orienting the visitor within the adjunct spaces of the building is done in a number of strong colors, with each program and activity marked by a specific hue, suggestive of its content.
 
The lengthy and uncertain realization of the Swimming pool Vukovar was brought to its conclusion with a grand opening ceremony and a communal sense of relief: finally, this idea of great magnitude and complexity was realized and put to use by the public, athletes, Olympic athletes, sports clubs and associations from Vukovar, Slavonia and the wider region.