Architects: Ameneiros Rey HH Arquitectos Photography: Héctor Santos-Diez Construction Period: 2025 Location: Narón, Spain
On a municipal plot designated for sports facilities, there is a large wooded green area overlooking the Ferrol estuary. The local council proposed the addition of an outdoor swimming pool within this site.
The challenge was to ensure that the swimming pool itself contributed to the range of outdoor activities, integrating into a steeply sloping terrain while achieving an optimal architectural response in terms of performance and materiality—not only during the period of use but throughout the months when the facility would remain closed (3 months open and 9 months closed).
To achieve this, passive design principles were employed, together with construction, operation, and maintenance strategies that were as simple and unsophisticated as possible.
Read MoreThe polygonal-shaped site is located on a small, highly exposed promontory, a condition that defines both the character of the place and the starting point for the project.
With the aim of achieving the smallest possible built volume, two distinct areas were created: the swimming pool and its surrounding deck at the natural ground level, and the changing facilities on a lower level, covered by the pool deck itself.
The pool is positioned in the central area of the site, at the northern corner of the enclosure, halfway down the existing slope. This location minimizes earthworks—particularly important due to the site’s proximity to the Petouzal Hillfort archaeological area—and allows for maximum integration into the immediate surroundings.
The project seeks a solid, simple, and robust construction, with minimal—or virtually no—maintenance requirements, capable of fulfilling its function sustainably, without discrimination in use, and fully accessible between the two designed levels directly from the surrounding outdoor spaces.
The structure is entirely built in reinforced concrete, using exposed waterproof concrete block walls for both enclosures and internal partitions. These materials offer excellent resistance to the passage of time, intensive use, and adverse environmental conditions, eliminating the need for additional finishes on exterior walls, interior surfaces, and ceilings. The building is covered but not completely enclosed, with no thermal envelope, since its use is exclusively seasonal during the summer months. Consequently, it requires neither heating nor cooling, and ventilation is entirely natural.
Particular attention is paid to user privacy, the overall scale of the complex, and the spirit and traditions of Galician vernacular construction. This is reflected in the masonry work using prefabricated modular elements for interior and exterior paving, inner and outer wall layers, and protective architectural components.
Text provided by the architects.
