Architects:Sweco Architects

Area:2000m²

Year:2021

Photographs:Sweco Danmark

Lead Architects:Peter Kristiansen

City:Silkeborg

Country:Denmark

Text description provided by the architects. Offering multiple activities for both winter bathers, summer guests, athletes, and children, Eastern and Western Bathing Resort at Almindsø support Silkeborg Municipality’s vision of being Denmark’s ‘outdoor capital’. The newly opened circular bathing facilities are designed to protect the area’s special environment and the lake’s biodiversity.

Inspired by nature’s own shapes, the circle is the basic concept behind the design. The interconnected bridges – with integrated buildings and facilities – will invite bathers to use the bridges as they move around the resorts – this way, the buildings and bridges will have minimum impact on the surrounding environment. The new lake baths will be constructed from locally sourced wood and will be bolted together without the use of fittings.

Designed to protect the environment and biodiversity. The two bathing resorts have been developed in close cooperation with the Danish Nature Agency. The permission for the project is given based on a thorough habitat impact assessment, which ensures that the new resorts can be built without consequences for the area’s animals, plants, and aquatic environment. The environment surrounding Almindsø contains high biodiversity – for example with several rare species of underwater plants.

“Eastern and Western Bathing Resort supports Silkeborg Municipalities vision of being Denmark’s outdoor capital and offers various activities for both winter bathers, summer guests, athletes, and children. For example, there will be a sauna at Eastern Bathing Resort, while both resorts will comprise changing facilities and safe, framed children’s pools,” says Peter Kristiansen, Creative Manager for Learning and Leisure at Sweco Architects.

Almindsø is part of an international protection area, which commits to maintaining good water quality. Therefore, the behavior of the guests must be controlled and limited in order to minimize the impact on the surrounding environment. The vision of the new bathing resort is to improve the bathing experience while creating facilities that ensure the protection of the biodiversity in the lake and the surrounding nature.

Project gallery

Project location

Address:Almind Lake, 8600 Silkeborg, Denmark