Riehen Natural Swimming Pool by Herzog & de Meuron

The idea of replacing the obsolescent outdoor swimming baths in Riehen, a town on the outskirts of Basel, had been considered for a long time, and finally this year the Riehen Natural Swimming Pool opened its doors. The planners, Herzog & de Meuron, did not design a conventional swimming pool but a natural one with a biological filtration cycle, thus replacing the old facility with a bathing lake that doesn't need chlorination. Most of the structures in the facility have been realised in pale larch. In the south, the grounds are merely enclosed by a hedge; on the other sides, a wall in the pale timber delineates the perimeter, with the northern and western boundaries also featuring a 200-metre-long long sheltered solarium with recliners. The biological water treatment basins are located on a slope on the opposite side of a road outside the pool. The 'Naturbad' is designed to accommodate 2,000 bathers a day.