There are landscapes that seem perfect, finished. Touching them can mean corrupting them. Faced with the splendour of the ocean, a swimming pool will never cease to be a fantasy, a representation of the desire to possess part of what we cannot control, the sea! An attraction that, however, cannot replace or eclipse the presence of that extraordinary body of water.

How can we interpose any presence between the sea and the city? The proposal of the pool will then have to be delicate and silent, almost a sigh on the sand. The set of pools will be a longitudinal mark that does not interrupt the landscape. The design of the enclosure is free of vertical constructions and will accompany the walker to the sand, and to the sea. The user's perception is of a sequence of parallel strips: water, beach, bike path, promenade and house closings.
Also the container should be imperceptible. It should remain submerged in the water. The shape of water designed by a vacuum that separates the different tanks, spaces and materials. A narrow and shadowy feature delicately defines the boundary of each tank: a recreational glass for adults, a hydromassage zone and a splash pool for children. The pavement of the pools slowly descends and ascends until it becomes a very thin sheet of water when it encounters the fixed concrete esplanade at each end of the complex.
We propose a mobile esplanade in a metallic structure covered with a material based on the most sophisticated holistic knowledge, mixing tradition, innovation, sustainability, resistance and comfort: Corkeen. Corkeen is a compound applied as a mortar, based on 100% natural cork, free of toxins, microplastics or carcinogens, very comfortable and that does not heat up in the sun, as occurs with rubber-based materials designed for recreational pavements. On the other hand, these esplanades or mobile platforms have the function of covering the pool during the winter months, at night, protecting the water and the structure from vandalism.
With an opening system in opposite directions, north and south, the roofs / esplanades, at the end of the day are collected in the center and the tanks are closed, transforming into a stage – an urban platform with multiple possibilities of use for citizens who love to frequent or stay on the beach under the moonlight.
The structure is made up of a perimeter stainless steel tubular profile and a sequence of tubular strips closed together by corrugated sheet metal profiles and finely covered by 6 cm of cork agglomerate. Around the perimeter, a stainless-steel sheet, with a finish executed by projection of glass microspheres, supports the wheels and the rack that slide inside the longitudinal groove where the water drains.
With one more meter of opening movement in the opposite direction to that of the tanks, the structure reveals access to each of the technical rooms of the pools. These rooms house the compensation tanks, filter system, chemical addition system and electric pumps, in addition to the drive motor for the roofs themselves.
On the west bank of the pools, a walk for dry and clean feet accompanies the entire length of the intervention. The colored concrete walkway – ocher, sand like – is cut out by two showers that allow users to wash both at the entrance and at the exit of the pools.
On the opposite side, a continuous footbath reduces the presence of sand inside the pools and serves as a transition between the high outside temperature and the ambient temperature of the water.
A little further to the east, a concrete bench runs parallel to the pools and provides a place for the people to sit down to contemplate the sea and to control the agitation in the pools, underlining the meaning of the proposal.
No windbreak structure, no artificial shade structure has been incorporated into the proposal. Nothing, except the individual equipment of each vacationer, should be interposed between the swimming pool space and the sea. The use of artificial shade structures would ruin the beauty of the view in the surroundings of La Concha-Compostela. For this reason, instead, it is proposed to plant, between the bench and the promenade, in the nascent sense, a sequence of Pinus Pinea, providing natural shading. Its logs in perspective create a curtain and protect pool users from a full and prying view by riders. However, they do not obstruct the view of the horizon to the walkers who pass, or to the people who inhabit the houses facing the sea. Its presence enlivens the urban front, protects citizens from the inclemency of the sun and in the dry season it stains the sand with the ocher of the needles, blending this with the ferrous oxidation present in the pavement of the current promenade.

The entire structure has been conceived in ocher colored reinforced concrete for greater integration with the predominant colors in the environment. The older the concrete, the more beautiful it becomes. This is how the materials that nature gives us age. Aging does not necessarily mean deterioration, that is why the aesthetics of the proposal depends on this apparent wear as part of its landscape integration.

Author: NOARQ - José Carlos Nunes de Oliveira, in collaboration with AM2 Arquitectos. Program: outdoor public swimming pool. Collaborators: arch. Florencia Ruiz, arch. Manuel Lopez. Digital image: LENS – Architectural Stories.