From a Dream to a Project: The Bauhaus-Universität Weimar Kreativfonds

Episode 3: Building together, under one roof together – a colonnade for the Rippershausen Outdoor Pool

A swimming pool is more than just a place to swim laps; it is a venue that brings together young and old as well as locals and guests. Some come to test their bravery with a jump from the three-metre diving board. Others smell of sunscreen and chlorine and are associated with the sounds of screaming children and belly flops. Still others are children from surrounding towns who ride their bikes to the open-air swimming pool to spend carefree holidays or to earn a badge that certifies their ability to swim. Professor of Urban Design Steffen de Rudder says, »Outdoor pools are not just about summer fun in the sun; they are also outstanding facilities for endowing a place with a sense of community«. However, such venues are becoming rare at a time of empty public coffers and rapidly rising energy prices.

In Rippershausen, committed individuals are trying to compensate for these unfortunate circumstances. In 2011, the municipality was feeling pressure to close the outdoor pool. A citizens’ initiative didn’t want to allow this to happen, and its members formed a sponsoring association that has been looking after the swimming pool, built in 1971, ever since. The sky-blue pool is set back a few metres from the town’s main street on an open field. A small snack bar, a changing room and a long building for technical equipment, storage, sanitary facilities and supervision by lifeguards are also among the pool’s amenities. Volunteers even poured new concrete for the pool this year. Such volunteers also organise annual concerts, tournaments and the »Cultural Beer Garden«, founded by musician Gunther Irmer, who hails from Rippershausen.

Would it be possible to do even more? What can be done to transform this wonderful summer attraction into a meeting place for the community in the other seasons? And above all, how would it be possible to raise the necessary money? To find solutions to these problems, a partnership was established between the Friends of the Rippershausen Swimming Pool Association and the Department of Urban Design at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar’s Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism in 2021. In cooperation with Prof. Dr. Steffen de Rudder, students developed proposals and prepared sketches of options for what the pool could look like. How about a youth hostel next to the water’s edge? Or a natural pool without chlorine? Or a long colonnade that provides protection against rain and snow while also connecting the pool to the entrance?

During the Cultural Beer Garden in July 2021, the people of Rippershausen were also able to view three possible variants for the first time. The visitors enthusiastically provided feedback, offering praise, criticism, and additional wishes such as additional seating, a children’s slide or a place to play boules. The proposals were later displayed on banners in the town for six weeks. After a final discussion with the community, the decision was made in October 2021. The winning idea was the colonnade design by students Simon Fischer and Gerrit Müller-Scheeßel, who created the project as part of their thesis work.  

The Junior Professorship of Constructive Design and Experimentation of Dr. Stephan Schütz, his colleagues Kassandra Löffler and Julius Tischler and a new group of 18 students continued the work in the new semester. The challenge of the project was that the new roof was later to be 60 metres long. The tight budget meant that volunteers would have to construct the colonnade themselves using wood belonging to the municipality. The students were thus being asked to design and build a structure that would be easy to understand and require few materials other than wood – and that would also be sturdy, of course.

The students again worked in small groups, and again there were three variants to choose from. These were displayed on the walls of the empty swimming pool in Rippershausen, which was being renovated at the time. »It was a warm spring day«, student Nico Schmitt recalls. His team’s design finally found a majority with a proposal of modules made of bolted timbers measuring eight-by-eight centimetres. Assembly is facilitated through parts that can be cut to size and holes that can be pre-drilled in advance.

It sounds simple, but the approach is still associated with certain difficulties, says Schmitt. »It’s important not to underestimate the wind speed.« Kevin Orlamünder, who has a master’s degree in civil engineering, helped out with the structural engineering calculations. The students had to rethink their original plan of constructing everything using muscle power alone. »It was simply too exhausting. During the assembly work, we were assisted by a telescopic forklift that easily lifted the largest components into the air,« Schmitt explains.