The decline of welfare, as intended in the modern age, has been often accompanied by the deterioration and the disappearance of the estate assets where its functions were performed. A material disappearance, in case of abandon or demolition, but also a symbolic disappearance, as the public building has become increasingly unassuming, dull, undersized, inefficient. Plant and Tecton’s Dezső Gyarmati swimming pool, in Buda, goes against this trend, standing out as a contemporary ‘monument’ in its own right to the art of swimming.
Many elements contribute to this unexpected rehabilitation: the imposing barrel-vaulted ceiling covering the Olympic-size basin, the elegant ‘pleating’ of its elevations, the alignment of the entrance hall and of the two main pools (indoor and outdoor) along an almost processional sequence, as well as the global generosity of all spaces, both quantitatively and qualitatively speaking.
The project can certainly be blamed for the affectation of a few golden details, such as the thin foils embellishing its façades. Inside the building, some finishing materials undeniably suffer from a certain pretentiousness, their selection affected by the choice to stick to the not so innovative concept of “the distinction between dirt [dark] and clean [bright]”. These are all venial sins, though, when considered in regards to the opening considerations to this reflection: the matter of principle, here, is way more important than the matter of taste.
- Project:
- Dezső Gyarmati swimming pool
- Program:
- public swimming pools
- Location:
- Buda, Hungary
- Architects:
- Plan and Tecton
- Plant Team:
- Péter Kis, Bea Molnár, Anikó Tóth, Zsolt Krausz
- Tecton Team :
- Béla Varga, Tamás Ükös, Péter Tokaji, Dalma Szunyoghy-Kollár
- Interior design:
- Plant
- Completion:
- 2019