Eastside indoor swimming pool Kassel

KM Architects

Products

1163
Door handle fitting

Berlin ar­chi­tect Hans Koll­hoff devised a handle design for his pro­jects that con­sciously in­cor­po­rates design el­e­ments from the 1930s. His pared-down door handles, window handles and window fas­ten­ers were im­me­di­ately em­braced by the market as au­then­tic in­ter­pre­ta­tions.

1163
Door handle fitting
1163
Door handle fitting
1163
Door handle fitting
1163
Door handle fitting
06 1163
Door handle for framed doors

Repurposing a Bauhaus building

Owning a build­ing from the Bauhaus era is surely what many ar­chi­tects dream of. In the case of the KM Ar­chi­tects prac­tice run by Keivan Karam­pour, Marc Köhler and Thomas Meyer, it’s a dream come true. The prop­erty the ar­chi­tects bought in order to house their own of­fic­ing amongst other things is a rather unusual one with sport­ing con­no­ta­tions. The former indoor swim­ming pool in the Kassel borough of Bet­ten­hausen had stood empty since 2007. It was closed because pieces of con­crete had started be­com­ing de­tached from a ceiling that needed over­haul­ing, some­thing the city could not afford.

Built to plans by the Kas­sel-based ar­chi­tects Ernst Rothe and Hermann Jobst, the baths were in­au­gu­rated in 1930 under the motto: “Washing is good, having a bath better, swim­ming best of all”. The orig­i­nal ground-plan also in­cluded washing fa­cil­i­ties serving per­sonal hygiene needs. The build­ing’s new use takes account of the fact that it is an im­por­tant listed mon­u­ment whose lo­ca­tion is also very high-pro­file and sig­nif­i­cant from an ur­ban-plan­ning point of view.

The new site is en­sconced between Kassel’s inner city and its pre­dom­i­nantly in­dus­trial dis­tricts to the east, is sur­rounded by ex­ten­sive park­lands con­tain­ing oaks planted by Joseph Beuys, and is thus ideally placed to help vi­talise the eastern bor­oughs. Its mix of uses is cer­tainly no hin­drance to this ob­jec­tive. The struc­ture now pro­vides space for offices and doctors’ surg­eries whilst at the same time cre­at­ing plenty of floor­space for diverse cul­tural events such as ex­hi­bi­tions, con­certs and socials. The strik­ing nature of the old swim­ming baths ben­e­fits all the uses to which the build­ing is being put.

Architect and object

Photo: © Harry Sorem­ski

“We opted for the unfussy levers by Hans Koll­hoff due to their design in­cor­po­rat­ing el­e­ments current in the 1930s”, the ar­chi­tects say in the course of elu­ci­dat­ing an overall scheme that is of a piece down to the last detail. “Com­bin­ing the handles with square roses yields a product seem­ingly tai­lor-made for our build­ing.”

From baths to cultural location

The build­ing’s spaces con­tinue to be char­ac­terised by green oblong swim­ming-pool tiles running along their walls. It also proved pos­si­ble to retain ribbon glazing with its period sub­di­vi­sions as well as sec­tions of the old floor­ing. The ar­chi­tects drew on the build­ing’s strengths and ren­o­vated it ju­di­ciously. The impact of the fix­tures needed to de­mar­cate the new office spaces from the central bathing/cul­tural hall is em­i­nently low-key, though they are clearly recog­nis­able as some­thing added.

Floor-to-ceil­ing glass par­ti­tions now sep­a­rate the work areas from the central cul­tural and com­mu­nal space. Or­gan­i­sa­tion of floor­space is by means of re­mov­able and flex­i­ble fix­tures in timber. Even the actual pool has been ba­si­cally re­tained and it is this to which the central hall owes its very special flair. A layer of con­crete has nev­er­the­less been added at the height of what was once the water’s surface on which lounge-type easy-chairs evoke a feeling of somehow sitting on water. The space beneath is used for storage pur­poses.

The Bauhaus ar­chi­tec­ture of this indoor swim­ming pool in east Kassel is pared-back and devoid of or­na­ment. The ar­chi­tects ac­cord­ingly se­lected FSB 1163, a styl­is­ti­cally re­strained model, as their lever handle. The build­ing’s defin­ing colours are black, white and a muted green. The handles were there­fore fitted in black to match. Their angular styling lends them a pres­ence that is quite sur­pris­ing given their general lack of ob­tru­sive­ness – and it is this that won the ar­chi­tects over. In the end, the choice fell on the round rosettes, which once again create an in­ter­est­ing con­trast to the angular shape of the handle.

Objectdetails

Photos: © Katha­rina Jaeger, fo­tografis­che Werk­statt

Standort

Eastside indoor swimming pool Kassel

Leipziger Str. 99
34123 Kassel
Deutsch­land

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