Abstract
A common feature of sports facilities in the Karkonosze (the Giant Mountains) is the use of advantages of the natural environment and harmonious integration into the existing landscape. The authenticity of nature dominating in the concepts of sports devices fully satisfied psychophysical needs for rest and aesthetic sensations and made sports facilities ergonomic in the Giant Mountains. The purpose of the study is to determine the reasons for the creation of sports facilities in the Giant Mountains in the shape we remember and observe on postcards and the remains of which we find hidden in the thickets, which finally function today in urban arrangements and impress us with their ideas. Was it the result of a broader ideology which also contributed to the captivating landscape of the Giant Mountains? The method of observation and study of individual cases was adopted. Examples of the Giant Mountains bathing areas were selected. Attention was focused on outdoor swimming pools dating back to the turn of the century. They created a unique and invigorating atmosphere in resorts, villages, in the highest mountain ranges and in the forests. These objects have been preserved only fragmentarily. Hence, it seems even more necessary to analyse them.
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- 1.
In 1755, Dr. Russell, nicknamed ‘explorer of the sea’, praised water therapies and fought to open a bathing season in Brighton. In 1848, the first National Public Health Act was adopted in England. The first city bath and laundry for workers was opened in Liverpool in 1842.
- 2.
England was a leader of the sanitary movement. The hygienic movement was founded in 1840. In the 2nd half of the 19th century, German medicine researchers and hygiene reformers such as Max von Pettenkofer, Rudolf Virchow, and Robert Koch contributed significantly to hygiene science.
- 3.
These were: the International Hygiene Exhibition in Dresden in 1911, the Great Exhibition in Dusseldorf – GeSoLei in 1926, the Exhibition in Dresden in 1930 and many other art and sport exhibitions devoted to health, social care and physical exercises. A success of the events constituted encouragement for the establishment of the German Hygiene Museum in Dresden in 1930.
- 4.
From 1926 in Germany, swimming classes were part of school education.
- 5.
One of the earliest bathing facilities of this type was the one founded in 1857 in Ulm on the Danube, which functioned on the principle of the Kneipp method. The river bathing area consisted of cabins supported by stakes. Through a hole in the cabin, a person was lowered into a strong current of the river in order to achieve the effect of centrifuges [2].
- 6.
In the bathhouse concepts, the emphasis was put on recreation and sport. The city bathhouse which was built in Wroclaw in 1897 according to the design of Wilhelm Werdelman already housed a swimming pool.
- 7.
The Westend bathing area (Städische Strandbad – Westend) designed by Richard Konwiarz was established in Wroclaw in around 1927 by separating the 12/50 m area in the River Oder current and adapting the sloping waterfront for a recreational function. The contrast of bright reinforced concrete cantilever slabs and a dark colour of brick and wood evoked a picture of modern architecture [8].
- 8.
An example of a solution is a swimming pool built on the Morskie Oko (Leerbeutel See) natural waterbody in Wroclaw [5], which was designed by Richard Konwiarz. The bathing place is another of six open swimming pools, which the city undertook to implement in the years 1927–30. The prosaic architecture of rectangular pavilions covered with a gable roof was emphasized in the central part by a prominent arcade, supported by eccentrically slender columns. The arcade designated a transverse axis of the foundation, highlighted by a semi-circular terrace and a bridge, extending far deep into the sandy beach and the 50-m pool.
- 9.
Badesportpark Opperau bathing area [6] was founded in excavations after a brickyard in Wroclaw in 1927. The first clay pit was intended to be a gondola pond, whereas in the other one pools were situated: a paddling pool, jumping pool, 100/50 waterbody divided along for swimmers and non-swimmers. On the road’s side there was a pavilion of cash desks, dressing rooms and a buffet adapted to the landscape of the flat area. The long low dimensions with a predominance of horizontal lines of eaves extended into the boundless area contrasting with the reservoirs and soaring poplars.
- 10.
Major investments such as remodelling of the island to create a bathing place were also undertaken. In 1929, the Rheinstrandbad bathing place in Karlsruhe started functioning, which was formed thanks to the closure of the island of Rappenwort on the River Rhine. The investment was part of the progressive social and housing policy of the Weimar Republic and corresponded to the ideas of Volksparks of the 1920s.
- 11.
Postcards from 1915 show the already developed water body with wooden platforms and makeshift wooden one-storey buildings covered with an almost flat roof.
- 12.
On the first floor (at a height of about 6 m above the surrounding area) there were locker rooms and showers. On the ground floor (at a height of about 2 m), cloakrooms rooms and toilets were located in the arcades. The wooden structure was supported by prominent concrete pillars. Perpendicular to the water complex, a shooting range building with the adjoining buffet and colonnade was planned in 1928.
- 13.
In 1934, plans for the construction of a sports building complementing the existing infrastructure of the sports complex were developed (locker room, bar, sanitary facilities). It was interesting to use elements of the Norwegian style which already appeared in the local landscape. Referring to the Norwegian Pavilion (built in 1906 in the nearby Füllner Park), horizontal logs were used which were joined in the nodes with a decorative carpentry joint and a granite plinth made from rough blocks. Large sliding windows provided abundant interior lighting and a view of the stadium and the bathing resort.
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Wojtas-Harań, A. (2020). The Specificity of the Sports Facilities Concepts in the Karkonosze – A Harmonious Arrangement with the Landscape. In: Charytonowicz, J. (eds) Advances in Human Factors in Architecture, Sustainable Urban Planning and Infrastructure. AHFE 2020. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 1214. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-51566-9_19
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