The German Lottery Foundation Berlin (Stiftung Deutsche Klassenlotterie Berlin) has approved a government grant of €110,000 (USD 150,000) to support producing an in-depth design and hydrological report for the Flussbad project.

The jury appreciated the poetic metamorphosis of a rather undefined public space in the historic city center of Berlin into an activated urban landscape. The project will transform the Kupfergraben Canal, an underutilized arm of the River Spree, into a natural, self-cleaning body of water. Along this 750-meter stretch by the Museum Island, people will be able to walk, bike, swim, or just relax.

The Flussbad is more than just a big swimming pool. It proposes a playful amenity on a site that is culturally and politically loaded. The existing conglomeration of museums will be enriched with this simple but atmospheric gesture that provides a public urban recreational space both for residents and tourists.

An urban plan by Jan and Tim Edler of realities:united to transform an under-utilized stretch of the River Spree in Berlin into a 745m-long natural “swimming pool” was presented with the Global Holcim Awards Bronze 2012. The handover of the prize including USD 50,000 was held at the Internationale Bauakademie in Berlin. Amongst the speakers were renowned Swiss architect, Mario Botta; Senate Building Director of the City of Berlin, Regula Lüscher; and Chairman of Holcim Ltd, Rolf Soiron. 

A remarkable number of projects by German authors were prize-winners in the third International Holcim Awards competitions, resulting in the exhibition “MACHEN! The German winners of the Holcim Awards 2011/12” at the Aedes Architekturforum in Berlin. The six-week-long exhibition attracted some 5,000 visitors – and also included three panel discussions by the prize-winning project teams on the themes of (re)building the city to allow the coexistence of different lifestyles; using the entire spectrum of materials; as well as rediscovering and modernizing traditional architectural techniques.

A school project in Gando, Burkina Faso, a multifunctional community center in São Paulo, Brazil, and an urban renewal plan in Berlin, Germany are the winners of the Global Holcim Awards for 2012. These leading sustainable construction projects were selected from 15 finalist submissions by a jury of independent experts led by Enrique Norten. The finalists were the regional Holcim Awards 2011 winning projects that had been selected from more than 6,000 entries in 146 countries.

The projects that received Holcim Awards Gold, Silver, or Bronze in each of the five regions of the world were automatically qualified to compete for the Global Holcim Awards 2012. The more extensive submission on the Urban renewal and swimming-pool precinct for the global phase of the competition can be found here: 

Project posters »

The winners of the 3rd International Holcim Awards competition for sustainable construction projects and visions from across Europe have been announced at a ceremony in Milan. A total of USD 300,000 was presented to ten outstanding projects submitted by architects, planners, engineers and project owners. The winning projects show the wide range of approaches in the region to sustainable construction that respond both to intensified urbanization and innovation in building materials and construction techniques.

The jury commended this project due to its direct and very strong impact on the quality of urban life in an area of Berlin which has been previously overlooked. The project questions the ownership of the river itself that is currently used exclusively for shipping and drainage purposes but not for public activities. The idea of providing a public facility is convincing, feasible and easily transferable. 

The Flussbad project is located in the center of Berlin and transforms an unused arm of the River Spree into a natural 745m “swimming pool”. The facility is the equivalent of seventeen Olympic swimming pools with an average width of 28.8m, water depth around 2.2m, and features a 780m-long reed bed filtration system. The renewal concept for the 3.9ha site is as invigorating and hypothetical as it is realistic and simple in design. Parts of the Lustgarten Quay wall are converted into generous stairs providing access to the swimming pool, with functional lockers and change rooms integrated unobtrusively into the terrain.