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POOLS + THERMALS

PLAZA DE ARMAS, SEVILLE

For some time now, various urban organizations and associations have emphasized the great lack of public swimming pools in the city of Seville, with numbers far below the premises indicated for any city.

In fact, for decades, even before Expo'92, it has been one of the most constant demands made by citizens in all districts of Seville, and to which there has hardly been a solution from the City Council: public swimming pools to be able to to cope with the many months of strong heat, and to have a public facility favorable to adults and children, where, for example during the school holidays at the end of June, July, August and the first half of September, to be able to exercise, refresh and socialize.

Some devastating data appear: in the city there are only four public swimming pools, those of Rochelambert, Alcosa, Tiro de Línea and Torreblanca, with 1,275 places available per day for a total population, that of Seville, which is around 700,000 inhabitants. In other words, there is one swimming pool for every 175,000 inhabitants, which is a ratio much higher than that recommended by the Higher Sports Council, for which the ideal is one center for every 27,679 inhabitants. If that recommendation is followed, Seville should have more than 25 pools. Almost all Spanish municipalities, large or small, have a better average of public swimming pools per number of inhabitants, data that collide with the thermal condition of the city, being one of the hottest in the country.

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In the midst of this panorama of uncertainty and necessity, the following intervention was born, where the idea of ​​the provision of aquatic equipment stands as the central axis of the proposal. The project is developed mainly on 3 levels connected to each other, annexing the three different levels that define the city's fluvial condition: city level, river walk level, and river level, achieving fluid accessibility that provides proximity to the project by the Username. At the highest point, a first programmatic bay emerges that links the urban situation outside the plot and the new intervention, with uses such as restaurant services, cafeteria, and gym. From this level, the next level can be accessed externally through comfortable ramps or internally to the extensive garage through the common areas of this first building.

At the next level, at the level of the river walk, the entire programmatic package referring to aquatic activity is installed: a building line is created that adheres to the land and, in addition to housing uses of changing rooms, toilets and administration areas and control, they are intended as support for the insertion of 3 public pools designed as the axis of the project, where two of them would be used for more domestic use, the third being a pool with measures suitable for the practice of competitions, with tiers designed for such events. Finally, a series of floating pools are created at the river level, which are accessed through pontoons, offering a new habit within the whole of the intervention.

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Thus, in addition to contributing to alleviate the absence of public swimming pools, it provides a new aquatic and programmatic experience in an area, in addition, where the need for a new arrangement in the entire environment near the Plaza de Weapons.

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