Baltic Thermal Pool Park Competition Winners

Baltic Thermal

Homemade Dessert has announced the winners of the Baltic Thermal Pool Park competition.

The second competition in a design series focused on Liepaja Seaside Park (Liepaja, Latvia) to be presented a vision for a new development that would consist of a thermal pool park with outdoor and indoor SPA facilities. Over 90 innovative, creative, and well-elaborated submissions were received from all over the world; evaluation of each proposal was conducted in an ethical, professional, accurate, and technically adequate manner. 

The Consultative Jury Committee consisting of experts and professionals in the field chose 10 finalists whose proposals were handed over to the Core Jury Committee for further evaluation. After an interesting and engaging debate in Liepaja – “in the city where the wind was born” – the winners of the project were chosen. 

The main aspects taken into consideration, making a decision was the integration of the complex in the urban design and urban settings of the town, environmental capacity, sustainability, functionality, and financial viability. 

The organizers, Homemade Dessert and Liepaja City Council would like to express our gratitude to all the participants who took their time and talent to share their unique ideas on the competition topic. Your work and effort are appreciated very much and we value your skills and expertise highly. Below, the Core Jury Committee describes the three winning proposals.

1ST PRIZE – Baltic Thermal Pool Park Competition

Baltic Thermal

Winner: Nikole Bouchard

The project offers a unique perspective on the development of a thermal pool park. The authors have created the complex as a multi-functional center where one can find different kinds of activities in all four seasons. Swimming and exercising in thermal pools, outdoor film screenings, and local apple, cherry, and plum harvesting as a part of a local market space program. In the project “cut-and-fill” technique mostly has been executed – excavated and removed material from one location is used to fill another location as a result creating an appealing and intriguing topography for the City of Liepaja.

The jury was especially impressed by the futuristic touch of the project and the opportunity to have high-quality SPA and recreational services in the town throughout the year. The jury also emphasized the multi-functional nature of the project – adding more activities in and around the complex can be an extra value added for the inhabitants of the city who could visit the complex not only to enjoy the beauty of SPA and thermal pools but also enjoy a good film or teach their children the basic entrepreneurial skills, selling the local apples picked from the garden at the site in specially designed market spaces.

2ND PRIZE – Baltic Thermal Pool Park Competition

Baltic-Thermal-Pool-Park-2nd-winner-01

Winner: Thomas van Gaver, Julien Hubert, Audrey Thomas, Charlotte Habib.

The authors of this project have divided the buildings into two different functionality programs – the main SPA complex where all the attractions and SPA treatments are offered and the guest accommodation where the visitors can slowly enjoy the nature and charm of the hundreds of years old trees.

The thermal pool center is developed in the space where the least number of trees to be cut; the guest accommodation is scattered throughout the site to create the feeling of “small villages in the forest” to enable visitors to forget their daily routine and get the maximum gain of the visit in order to accomplish their goal – to get an unforgettable SPA treatment. Glass plates are used for the main SPA complex building, which gives the visitor a chance to be in touch with the nature even enjoying the SPA treatments indoors. The jury emphasizes the financial viability of the construction of this project and the original location of the treatment rooms and thermal pools.

3RD PRIZE – Baltic Thermal Pool Park Competition

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Winner: Alexandre Grignon, Noémie Marechal.

The authors of this project have divided the buildings in two different functionality programs – the thermal and wellness complex and the guest accommodation, divided into several small entities. The buildings have been located in a careful manner to preserve the existing environment and surroundings.

The authors have emphasized the relationship between a visitor and nature – to get the full thermal and wellness complex experience, one has to take a stroll through a forest to enjoy the beauty of it and to have a chance to enjoy a breeze of fresh sea air. The main thermal and wellness complex itself plays with the ambivalences of water and the forest, Earth, and air. The ambivalences are shown through the perspective of different scales and the graduation of colors, used in the interior design of the main complex. The jury emphasizes the character of the project, financial viability in implementation, and pool layout design ideas.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Hart Marlow / Ferda Kolatan / Erich Schoenenberger

Pedro Sousa / Cristina Vasconcelos / Ines Baptista / Mariana Neto

Guillaume Ros / Stella Buisan

Derek Pirozzi

Neeraj Bhatia / Cesar Lopez / Blake Stevenson

Kenta Posey / Royd Zhang / Jesse Goguen / Andrew Kim