Flowing transitions were implemented in a two-story bathing and sauna landscape using ceramic tiles from the brands AGROB BUCHTAL and Jasba that unified color, form, and functionality in this project by Behnisch Architekten.
The sports and leisure area was created at Riedlepark on the site of the local trade fair that had relocated. It offers a range of sports including a dance school, a karate school, and a multifunctional hall. The sports pool is designed for family and wellness, but is also suitable for club and school sports. It presents itself as an inviting, elegant new building with filigree details.
A Flowing Landscape
The bathing landscape is visible through the glass facade of the complex. Developed around a central inner courtyard, the area is divided into a spacious bathing area with a swimming pool and children's pool on the ground floor and an intimate upper floor with a sauna, catering and staff rooms. The rooms merge fluently together over both floors and the idea is supported with carefully composed ups and downs made using green roof areas with projecting edges.
The idea of a holistic building concept and rooms fluently merging into one another over two floors is also supported by the carefully composed ups and downs of the green roof areas with projecting edges.
Design
The ground-floor bathing world has a high proportion of daylight, with a spacious feel and sporty, fresh and yet unobtrusive colors. The bathers are able to move freely between the open areas. The walls and ceilings appear in velvety fair-faced concrete or with warm wood cladding. The swimming pools, pool surrounds and the shower and changing room floors as well as the access areas are covered with AGROB BUCHTAL ceramic tiles.
The essential link for the seamless transitions between the individual bathing areas are the porcelain stoneware floor tiles of the Trias series from AGROB BUCHTAL, finished in zinc grey in two formats:
- 5 x 5 cm mosaic
Laid around the swimming pools and in wet areas - 30 x 60 cm tiles
Laid in free bond above all in the changing rooms as well as in the access and rest zones
The tiles meet the slip resistance required of swimming areas, having a slip resistance class of R11/B. The mosaic tiles also make connections to other components such as drains, columns, gutters etc. or drainage areas easily realized.
The Circle Design Principle
Heated benches are covered with round mosaics, taking advantage of the directionlessness of the material and how it clings to such curved structures like a tailor-made suit. The sea-green benches offer pleasant color accents and structure the bathing landscape. They are partially covered with round mosaics with a diameter of 1 cm, merging into round mosaics with a diameter of 2 cm via vertical surfaces. The horizontal surfaces use the slip-resistant R11/B version in case they are walked on by young bathers.
The Loop series round mosaics also decorate the walls and the floor of the children's pool. A color gradient from light aqua blue to aqua blue over a length of 3 meters intuitively communicates the increasing water depth to young swimmers.
Circles play a key role in the building concept of smooth transitions. As a recurring design element, they have a significant influence on the general appearance of the sports pool that features round columns, skylights, and luminaires and round perforations in the acoustic ceilings.
Security and Intimacy in the Sauna Area
The Trias series of AGROB BUCHTAL ceramic tiles were used in the upper floor sauna area to match the bathing landscape downstairs. The only difference is the slightly darker color iron ore paired with earthier tones gives a cosy atmosphere.
The round Loop-series mosaics were also used here in a gradient from coral-red to bronze-metallic to dark violet, produced by AGROB BUCHTAL, especially for this project indicating the subtle transition between hot saunas and refreshing showers.
Colour, Form and Function
The Sportbad Friedrichshafen showcases how strong of an emotional effect ceramic wall and floor tiles can give to a space. The variety of colors, forms, and formats in this project were utilized to create a sensuous holistic composition. Some details are so subtle, they are hardly noticeable, for example, the letter plates made of floor tiles from the Trias series of AGROB BUCHTAL, used to indicate water depth. The letter plates have a homogeneous appearance thanks to the choice of tiles. After cutting out the numerals using water jet technology, the parts were reassembled, pointed, and integrated as ceramic inlays.
Photo credit: agrob-buchtal.de / David Matthiessen
