Some 15 years after it was first opened, the “Moby Dick” indoor swimming pool in Rülzheim could no longer comply with the demands placed on a modern leisure facility. The local water and energy company therefore appointed the architectural practice Schick & Partner, a specialist in leisure facilities and swimming pools, to manage the refurbishment of the existing building, the pool refurbishment and the pool extension, and to carry out a complete redesign of the external works. The original indoor pool was a rectangular flat-roofed structure with a central 50 m pool. Above the pool there was an air-inflated roof made from translucent PVC-coated polyester fabric. During the course of the extensive refurbishment works, the architects placed a shallow-pitch monopitch roof on top of this and designed an entirely
new membrane roof over the pool. The new roof structure made from glued laminated timber arches and three-layer ETFE foil allows users a virtually unobstructed view of the sky and ensures plenty of daylight in the pool area itself. The underside of the outer layer of ETFE is printed to ensure that no excessive amounts of heat and light enter the pool in the summer. Opening vents measuring 1.7 x 3.9 m at the crest of the arch in two bays ensure natural ventilation; and in the event of a fire these also serve as smoke and heat vents. The gable walls to the roof structure are also made from three-layer transparent ETFE cushions so that light penetrates deep into the swimming pool and reduces the level of artificial lighting required.
