© Clément Guillaum
Les Bains Des Docks by Jean Nouvel
As part of a masterplan to regenerate the docklands of Le Havre, Les Bains Des Docks is an complex aquatic center including an Olympic-size outdoor swimming pool alongside a public baths and lagoon-style leisure pools.
Simple black exterior and white interiors with boxy design, large skylights and varying sizes windows bring natural light throughout.
Architects: Ateliers Jean Nouvel
Location: Le Havre, France
Photography: Clément Guillaum
Inspiration from architect:
The overall design was inspired by the Roman thermal baths as people can go to congregate in most of the various pools year round.
It is a paradox, a building on a harbour scale, inspiring simplicity and robustness, but which betrays its complexity as soon as one penetrates its volumes, one enters a universe of whiteness and depths.