When one thinks of public spaces, the image of a pool rarely comes to mind. Public spaces are the center of civic life, places where most interactions, activities, and behaviors follow strict social and cultural norms to ensure the safety and comfort of all users. In contrast, swimming and bathing represent something more intimate and primordial, a sensorial experience distinct from any other. In addition to the health benefits, the act of floating in space creates a break from everyday life and its constraints.
As social spaces, public baths, and pools offer an even more unusual experience. Here, regular conduct rules and norms no longer apply. Social nudity becomes the new norm, and, as people strip off their clothes, they also lose their status markers, transforming the pool into an egalitarian oasis. Across history, these often-discredited spaces offered a heightened social experience, fostering connections and bringing a new element to dense urban environments. As a typology present since antiquity, public baths and pools have also been a disputed space, as a manifestation of difficult topics such as gender and racial segregation, gentrification, and surveillance in contrast to the freedom they promise.
The history of pools is strongly linked with the evolution of cities. The earliest pool we know of is 5000 years old, in the form of a brick tank at the ancient city of Mohenjo-Daro in modern-day Pakistan. Throughout the ancient world, artificial bodies of water were created, most likely to be used for religious functions. The Roman Empire turned them into a secular act as a way of improving public health and hygiene but also to create social cohesion. The imperial thermae were grand architectural complexes competing and often overshadowing other public institutions like tribunals or temples. While technological improvements like concrete vaulting and aqueduct infrastructure allowed for the creation of large-scale complexes, the driving force behind them was Rome’s political power.
In the third century AD, Rome provided its citizens with 11 imperial thermae and over 900 smaller baths. As the city became one of the largest metropolises of its time, with over 1 million citizens, the provision of public swimming and bathing became more than a luxury, a necessity. A hundred years later, it is estimated that 60 000 Romans could bathe at the same time, as described by historian Ben Wilson. Clad in marble, some of these buildings, like the Baths of Diocletian or those of Caracalla, remained symbols of grandeur. Centuries later, New York’s entrance to the city and celebration of modern transportation, the Pennsylvania Station, took inspiration from the Baths of Caracalla for its grand hall.
But what made these institutions important was their social role. Men and women could attend the baths unrestricted. While saunas, massages, gyms, cosmetic procedures, drinks, and food were all available, the main attraction was the opportunity to socialize, to see and be seen. Consequently, the spacious halls of the baths were far from serene, with loud talking, shouts, and drunken songs being all part of the experience. Business talks, flirts, and gossip across genders and social statuses transformed these pools into the concentrated form of a truly urban experience.
After the fall of the Roman empire, and without its infrastructure, this type of space became less common in medieval Europe, but the tradition was upheld by the Islamic world in the form of hammams. Public pools reappeared in Britain during the Industrial Revolution, following an increase in the urban population and a renowned interest in public health. The beginning of the 19th century saw an explosion of municipal baths, many of which incorporated Turkish elements along with clothes-washing facilities. The public pools can be understood as a consequence of the rapid urbanization of the time, which limited access to clean water streams and lakes for a large number of urban dwellers. German-speaking countries followed the example in the 1860s, and so did the United States in the 1890s.
The densely populated American cities of the beginning of the 20th century led people to find refuge in the clean waters of the public pools. These spaces quickly became the heart of community life in cities like New York, which otherwise offered limited public spaces for the working class and low-income communities. As the preferred meeting space, especially for teenagers, public pools fostered and encouraged the development of youth culture. Officially, public pools were not segregated in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s, according to historian Ben Wilson. However, recurring conflicts and anxieties led to a separation based on ethnicity. Despite the frequent struggles of immigrants determined to take advantage of this common good, public pools became essential spaces for the working class, fulfilling all the functions of conventional urban public spaces.
Years later, in 2002, the mayor of Paris ordered the closing of vehicular circulation on one side of the river Seine in order to transform the quayside into a makeshift beach, complete with beach huts, sand, showers, sunbathing beds, and refreshments. In recognition of the importance of water-related activities, especially during the hot summer months in the heated city, the pop-up beaches of Paris, called Paris Plages, have become a yearly tradition. Along the Basin de la Villette, three floating pools have been installed on the river, adding swimming to the array of water sports practiced during the summer months.
As attractive as these spaces have proven to be, their absence from other European capitals is also felt and challenged. POOL IS COOL, an independent organization, has been advocating for the reintroduction of outdoor swimming in Brussels since 2015. In 2021, they managed to build and open FLOW, the city’s first outdoor pool, after over forty years. The project, designed and built by Decoratelier Jozef Wouters, aims to be a prototype for more permanent solutions, seen as a necessary part of a healthy and equitable urban environment. Besides providing the opportunity to swim free of charge, the project also addresses the social aspect of public pools. Multi-tiered decks surround the pool, providing additional spaces for its diverse cultural program and family-orientated activities. The project also provides a sense of shared ownership, as the structural system consisting of repeated patterns can be easily learned and passed on among inexperienced builders. In 2022, the initiative was recognized as a finalist for the European Prize for Urban Public Space by the Centre of Contemporary Culture of Barcelona (CCCB).
More than just spaces for social life, the introduction of pools in urban environments also introduces the act of playing in the center of the city. In densely populated areas, they provide respite from the constraints of city-living, while allowing its swimmers to immerse themselves into a different kind of urban experience. They offer a communal setting for people of all ages and backgrounds to gather, fostering social cohesion and a sense of community while acting as equalizers.
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on June 15, 2023, as part of the ArchDaily Topics: Water in Architecture.
