Canal Swimmer’s Club

In 2015, the city of Bruges decided to start again the organization of a Triennale for contemporary art and architecture, to expand its tradition of Triennals for contemporary Belgian art made in 1968, 1971 and 1974. The main theme proposes the challenging question ‘what if the medieval ‘egg’ of Bruges, were suddenly transformed into a metropolis?’ – What if the 5 million tourists, that visit every year the city of Bruges, all decided to stay ?’ Among eighteen international artists, the team composed by Atelier Bow-Wow and Architectuuratelier Dertien12 were asked to work on this idea. The team worked together on the project Canal Swimmer’s Club, a new multifunctional public space for meeting, relaxing, sunbathing and even swimming in the canals of Bruges.

“When I visited Bruges for the first time, I walked with the project manager to visit some spots in the city on hearing the history and story about Bruges. When we crossed “Carmersbrug”, he explained that this part of canal will be open for swimming for public in summer 2015 after 40 years of prohibition due to bad water quality. I am interested in this relationship between people and water. It is both people who damage the water quality and who enjoy the water in the city. I found there is huge potential to create new public space from the relationship between people’s behavior and water’s behavior. The city expected to have a sunbathing platform on the water to encourage people swimming again in the canal. I asked the city to let us design this sunbathing platform.” says the architect.

The project is a peculiar intervention which not only expand the public space of a too busy touristic city center, but mostly indicates how much the water quality has been improved by the effort of people and city government. The architects expectations lies on young citizen practicing their own public space in the water as well as the elderly who used to enjoy swimming in the canal. That’s why the project name is ‘Canal Swimmer’s Club’, related to the fictional social background behind it. The site is divided into two areas by the “Carmersbrug” bridge. One side provides a main access point for swimmers entering the water and on the other side, where swimming is prohibited, tourist boats are allowed to pass by on a regular basis. Two platforms are placed on each side, connected by a path running under the “Carmersbrug”. The main platform is positioned to not interfere with the tourist boat’s path, and a bridge and ramp allows people with disabilities to access the water level from the street. The platform is made in galvanize steel structure, that can be quickly assembled and disassembled for every future summer. 60% of the platform is covered by a shelter made by Z-shaped louvers, which consider sun, shadow, wind and rain behaviours. Rainwater is collected by the lower lip of the Z-louvers and drained directly into the canal. The floor is made of recycled wood planks typically used for scaffolding. A steel wire net safely encloses the sides of the ramps, stair and bridge by keeping a visual connection from the street. The architects also introduced a flag system used for beaches to visually mark the current swimming condition and possibly give a public feedback on the water quality. Canal Swimmer’s Club is the temporary appropriation of public space, showing a critical position against institutionalised space and a new type of architecture made from the relationship between different behaviors, which already existed in the city.

Architects: Atelier Bow-wow + Architectuuratelier Dertien12
Structural Engineer : Util
Location: Bruges, Belgium
Address: Carmersbrug, 8000 Brugge
Year: 2015
Photographs: Filip Dujardin, Ellen Demeulemeester, Jan Darthet