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Renovation of Northwest University Swimming Pool
Renovation of Northwest University Swimming Pool
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Renovation of Northwest University Swimming Pool
Type
STATUS
Concept
SIZE
10,000 sqft - 25,000 sqft
BUDGET
$0 - 10K
In a continuously evolving urban environment, past spaces and memories are constantly overlaid by new traces. Rather than simply preserving or erasing them, this project asks how architecture can intervene in this process, enabling layered temporal traces to be perceived and extended.
The project is located on the campus of Northwest University in Xi’an, within an abandoned open-air swimming pool. Once an important social space for students and nearby residents, the site gradually became an enclosed and marginal area after years of disuse. Despite this, its surface retains a rich accumulation of traces, forming a distinct spatial memory.
The design adopts minimal intervention as its primary strategy, treating the existing structure as a medium to be recorded and reorganized. Through high-resolution scanning and mapping of the pool floor, different types of damage and repair are translated into actionable spatial data. These traces are not randomly distributed, but reveal underlying patterns of aggregation, forming the basis for design intervention.
Based on this reading, the project responds through classification and translation. Point-based areas are filled with columnar mirrored metal elements, emphasizing their discrete nature; linear zones are defined by concrete walls, establishing continuous boundaries; and surface-based areas are covered with low wooden volumes, creating inhabitable spatial layers. Through the correspondence of material and scale, existing traces are transformed into a new spatial system.
A previously repaired swimming lane is further sunken and reintroduced as a water element, becoming the most time-specific feature of the site. This linear water body forms a continuous “interface of memory,” preserving historical traces while introducing new sensory experiences. Scattered timber posts allow for circulation while maintaining the continuity of the water surface.
The renewed pool is reopened as a public space. Interventions of varying height, scale, and enclosure generate layered spatial relationships, allowing the site to retain its historical complexity while accommodating new forms of use. Rather than reconstructing the past, the project translates existing traces into spatial conditions through which memory continues to operate in the present.
The project is located on the campus of Northwest University in Xi’an, within an abandoned open-air swimming pool. Once an important social space for students and nearby residents, the site gradually became an enclosed and marginal area after years of disuse. Despite this, its surface retains a rich accumulation of traces, forming a distinct spatial memory.
The design adopts minimal intervention as its primary strategy, treating the existing structure as a medium to be recorded and reorganized. Through high-resolution scanning and mapping of the pool floor, different types of damage and repair are translated into actionable spatial data. These traces are not randomly distributed, but reveal underlying patterns of aggregation, forming the basis for design intervention.
Based on this reading, the project responds through classification and translation. Point-based areas are filled with columnar mirrored metal elements, emphasizing their discrete nature; linear zones are defined by concrete walls, establishing continuous boundaries; and surface-based areas are covered with low wooden volumes, creating inhabitable spatial layers. Through the correspondence of material and scale, existing traces are transformed into a new spatial system.
A previously repaired swimming lane is further sunken and reintroduced as a water element, becoming the most time-specific feature of the site. This linear water body forms a continuous “interface of memory,” preserving historical traces while introducing new sensory experiences. Scattered timber posts allow for circulation while maintaining the continuity of the water surface.
The renewed pool is reopened as a public space. Interventions of varying height, scale, and enclosure generate layered spatial relationships, allowing the site to retain its historical complexity while accommodating new forms of use. Rather than reconstructing the past, the project translates existing traces into spatial conditions through which memory continues to operate in the present.
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