Bárány swimming pool, Eger

2011

Reconstruction of the Bárány swimming pool, Eger, National competition, shared 3rd prize


Architect in charge: Levente Szabó
Co-architects: Jessica Dvorzsak, Orsolya Simon, Katalin Bartis, Balázs Biri
Co-designer: András Páll
Landscape architecture: Csenge Csontos, Borbála Gyüre
Size: 2200m²


The Bárány swimming pool represents a milieu embodied not only by the area’s facilities and the morale of its historical installation, but moreover by the collective memory of local sportsmen and sportsfans. We wished to correspond to the compound urban structure, the functional and technological requirements as though keeping in mind this memory of the community – all functional analogies and reconstruction aside, this memory can create the continuity with the old swimming pool. We imagined the architectural appearance as a consequence of the buildings fundamental behaviour, the buildings open and closed elements, its layout design, not as a sector-like behaviour. Moreover, the mass of the building ensues from its frame and behaviour: the ground-floor wall-like masses have flat roofs, while the upstairs building mass, composed with the bridge has a low-pitched roof, buoyantly inclining towards the north. We deliberately evoked the present ground-floor connection with the neighbouring building. The simple forming of the masses holds together the eccentric outline of the building-site.