Outdoor swimming pool in Origgio

The swimmingpool and the mixed industrial/rural urban context.

Project details

• Project Name: Outdoor swimming pool in Origgio
• Location of Site: Origgio, Lombardy, Italy
• Design Team: Anna Chiara Morandi, Paolo Citterio
• Project Type: Expansion of a new sporting center
• Client: Mr. Giampietro Novara
• Contractor/s: Sporting Groane srl
• Site Area: 6000 sq. m.
• Built-up Area: 1150 sq. m.
• Cost of Construction: 1200000 €
• Date of completion: April, 2007

The pool towards southside.

Words from the architect

The expansion of the sporting centre in Origgio provides for the creation of an outdoor swimming complex with restaurant and reception area, which will flank the existing facilities: a number of soccer and five-a-side soccer fields and a gym with its locker rooms. The new additions meet a need to create a veritable urban park for sporting and recreational activities, and consist of: a big open-air swimming pool, a green solarium, a food service area and a new general reception facility for the sporting centre. In this manner, the range of sporting activities will be increased further and will attract new users, not interested in the activities available at present. It will also serve as a place where people can get together whether or not they want to practice some sport.

The Patio: the key-open space of the building.

The new building is organised around a central core accommodating a bar that works as a magnet and is able to support the activities of the entire reception system throughout the day and during the different seasons of the year. Two separate access doors lead to the sporting area and the restaurant. The complex is characterised by its compact design and straightforward layout: the buildings are arranged in the form of an "H", so as to create a patio facing the swimming pool and a general entrance looking onto the car park. The public portions of the building have an industrial type metal roofing, featuring an original shape in the longitudinal direction with sections slanted in opposite directions, specially designed to take full advantage of the natural light and to ensure good acoustics in the reception and food service facilities. Inside, there are no fixed walls partitioning the different rooms and a single counter links the bar and restaurant zones. A single, huge glass wall with sliding sections separates the food service hall from the exterior, affording an unobstructed view of the lawn and the swimming pool.

Another view of the Patio.

Few materials are defining the building in order to respond to the client brief and the need of simplicity. Concrete masonry for the walls, steel frame for the metal roofing of the public portions, natural woods for the pontoons of the swimmingpool and for the entrance facade. All the woods comes from International Reforestation Program.

The final version of the Sporting Center entrance.

The two side wings of the metal roofing extend beyond the glass wall so as to define a sort of open courtyard facing the swimming pool, a place that is functional to the bar-restaurant service as well as a favourite rendezvous and a place where different events can be staged (parties, sports prize awarding ceremonies, concerts). The main axis of the swimming pool runs in the north-south direction so that the surface of the water develops in parallel with the constructions, creating an interplay of vistas between the two. Continuity, i.e., the possibility of using ad hoc passageways to move through the different pools, generates a single water surface characterised by a simple geometry that is enlivened by a series of decks or pontoons that underscore the points of contact/separation between the different sections.

A wide and soft stairway introduce to the swimming pool.

The interplay water/lights at the evening.

The massage pool by night.

The entrance-door of the Restaurant.

The moods of the place is strongly influenced by the natural wood decking.

The solarium in a huge green space around the pools.

The relation between new parts and preexisting parts of the sporting center.

The patio should be an appropriate outdoor space to dancing events.

The sections are reminding to the industrial character of the site.

The model of the original version for the main facade (with metal supports to the green).

Detail of the passage between massage pool and main pool.

Credits

• Text: Paolo Citterio, Anna Chiara Morandi
• Photographs: Carlo Valiani, Anna Chiara Morandi