PARIS, BATHING IN THE SEINE

Urban bathing in Paris has been at the centre of discussions since the French capital's bid to host the 2024 Olympics. Paris is unique in that it has a large number of very different possible sites for developing bathing in the Seine. 

 

In this project, we are focusing on proposing projects in the form of basins, cut off from the rest of the river. As in Copenhagen in the 2000s, there's no question of starting with facilities that open onto the river. Bathing must be safe, supervised and protected from the large flow of shipping on the Seine. This premise is, of course, open to debate.

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Here are a few designs for baths that could one day appear along the Seine quays.

• The first set showcases the classic architecture of a basin in a rectangular form, rather large in scale for a city-wide influence.

• The second set explores the benefits of circular dock architecture on a more local scale.

• The third set proposes a concrete example of a bath in Paris, at the foot of the Eiffel Tower.