Going to the beach while staying in the city: 12 urban balneability projects

During summer, the right bank of the Seine from the Louvre to the Pont de Sully is transformed into one of the most attractive urban beaches in Europe. Artificial beaches, complete with 5,000 tons of sand, deck chairs and volleyball courts, are installed here during the warm months and are a major attraction for visitors. The main beach, the first to be opened, is a 3.5-kilometer strip between Pont Neuf and Pont de Sully. Other beaches can be found in Bassin de la Villette (near the Jaures/Stalingrad metro) and Voie Georges Pompidou. In 2013, the Berges de la Seine park and promenade, an eco-urban project with children's playgrounds, outdoor cafes, and boxes made from old shipping containers, was also opened on the left bank.

Berlin can boast one of the best urban beaches in the world, built in 2004 and designed by architect Fernando Menis. In fact, from May to September you can cool off at the Badeschiff, a stylish floating bathhouse and beach area where you can relax and take yoga or stand-up paddleboard lessons. The pool is located in the city center, floating in the river, in an old coal barge, like the ones that still transport materials along this waterway on a daily basis. The barge was converted into a swimming pool and a wooden platform was added, taking on the role of a beach, a recreational space where you can relax and have fun.

In Basel, the most popular sport in the summer months is swimming along the banks of the Rhine. The swimming route begins on the banks of the Kleinbasel, near the Tinguely Museum, and ends just before the Dreirosenbrücke bridge. The red buoys serve to protect swimmers and boaters from accidents. A unique opportunity then to be able to immerse yourself in the city's history and culture while swimming in the river.

In Milan, on the other hand, we can find the iconic Idroscalo, a 1.6-square-kilometer artificial lake fed by groundwater from the Lambro River. The idea of providing the city of Milan with a seaplane terminal – alongside the work on a planned Milan-Po navigable canal – dates back to 1926. By the late 1930s, the Idroscalo was already known as the "sea of Milan." All along the basin, bathers – with umbrellas, bathing suits and picnic supplies – used to spend their Milanese summer. After a period of a total ban on bathing, people returned to the Idroscalo in 2010.

This long, narrow island in central Vienna, a leafy 21-kilometer-long strip of land in the middle of the Danube, is not only part of the flood protection system, but the very focal point of Vienna's summer scene. Not to mention the 42 kilometres of sand, grass, and pebble beaches it offers – including a 250-meter-long family beach – as well as cafes, restaurants, bars, and bicycle and pedestrian paths. While the island is set up for relaxation, those looking for a little action should head to the Danube Canal and Strandbar Herrmann to find the right combination of cocktails and lounge chairs as well as live sports and club nights.

The Danish capital has a number of attractively designed harbor baths and urban beaches. There are four places in the city where you can dive into cool clear waters: the Fisketorvet harbor bathhouse, which has earned the nickname Copencabana; the newest, the Coral Baths at Sluseholmen, which opened in 2011; and the Svanemølle beach in the Østerbro district. But Islands Brygge baths are perhaps the most in vogue. Designed by architects Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt, the baths feature a sunbathing lawn, barbecues, and street food, making it a popular summertime hangout.

Perhaps the most beautiful of the city's urban beaches is Amsterdam Roest, a post-industrial space in eastern downtown with a sandy beach dotted with artwork made from recycled waste materials. There is also a huge market and during the summer the beach is the site of film screenings and events. There is a similar atmosphere at Blijburg aan Zee, a beachside venue in eastern Ijburg. Created as a pop-up summer space, the club, café, and event space is a rustic hangout and, when the sun goes down and the lanterns are lit, a magical place to spend a warm evening.

Eighty-five tons of sand aside, London's Southbank Centre is already one of the most interesting places to visit in the capital, most of all since the new Tate Modern extension has been added to the landscape of a long stroll connecting the Royal Festival Hall to the Millennium Bridge. During the summer, the Southbank Centre is enhanced with an urban riverside beach as part of the Festival of Love, which features an extensive program of free, outdoor events.

In early 2016, the city of Gothenburg opened a competition with the goal of developing a permanent water park. Won by the MARELD + atelier le balto collaboration, the goal of the project was to allow visitors to enjoy both the urban and activity-focused landscape, along with the ruderal and unplanned areas of the littoral and Kvillepiren. Here, local coastal-inspired flora, fauna, and habitats help unite these places, while visitors can experience a landscape that gradually transitions from an active, urban setting to a calmer, more natural one.

Starting with this example, Mexico City inaugurated a free public beach program, introduced in the capital during Semana Santa. The idea was to provide a recreational area for the 80 percent of citizens who do not leave the landlocked city during the vacation season. Mexico City is the hottest and most populous in the country, so one can imagine how popular these beaches are: after the success of Playa Villa Olimpica in 2007, the city built nine more.

The first major public space to be built on Toronto's lakefront in decades, HTO is a 6-acre park and public beach funded by the City of Toronto to attract new audiences to the shoreline and redefine Lake Ontario's derelict, once-industrial lakefront. Because the site was a brownfield, cost-effective environmental solutions included lining the contaminated soils and using dispersing infiltration wells to prevent contaminated runoff from flowing into the lake.

Built from the remains of a floating railroad bridge that was deposited on the riverbed, Pier 4 is planted with native species to encourage its continued evolution as a protected habitat reserve. The beach design incorporates innovative structures designed by ECOncrete to mimic the natural tide pools typically found along rocky shorelines. Some of these pools are accessible to visitors and offer an interactive demonstration of the park's diversity of habitats for marine animals and plant life.