pruned_ rosa barba prize 2_ the ocean pools of madeira (and sydney)
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2/11/2014 Pruned: Rosa Barba Prize 2: The Ocean Pools of Madeira (and Sydney)
http://pruned.blogspot.co.uk/2008/12/rosa-barba-prize-2-ocean-pools-of.html 1/14
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Rosa Barba Prize 2: The Ocean
Pools of Madeira (and Sydney)
Try as we might, we couldn't find a lot of information about these swimming pools in
Câmara de Lobos on the island of Madeira. Designed by Lisbon-based Global
Arquitectura Paisagista, Lda., they were shortlisted for the 5th Rosa Barba European
Landscape Award.
1
T h u r s d a y , D e c e m b e r 0 4 , 2 0 0 8
# l id o s # l i t t o r a l
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(The Natura l Pools o f Sal inas , Câm ara de Lobos , Madei ra, by Global Arqui tectura
Pais agis ta , Lda.)
We sent inquiries about hi-res images and followed links after links after links hoping
that one would lead to site plans and project statements. So far, we only managed to
unearth the image above and a terse, unattributed text describing the pools as a
“seafront recuperation project that incorporates traditional elements so as to intervene
in the landscape in a way that adapts the project to the geomorphic specificities of the
island.”
Are there only those two pools? Are those rust-colored gardens part of the project? Is
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that gray-colored wall concealing interior spaces of, say, changing rooms, restaurants
and access corridors to nearby buildings? We haven't a clue.
We were tempted to muse about what this has to say about our research skills (has our
reliance on Google over the years eroded them to embarrassingly remedial level?) or
the reach of our network (are we just not frequenting the right boîte in the Meat
Packing District?) or the media savviness of landscape architects (is the profession not
selling itself enough?).
But then we were reminded of our favorite post from Super Colossal and thought that
reproducing it here, with some drive-by commentaries, would be a better use of our
time.
In that post, then, Marcus Trimble introduced us to the wonderful ocean pools of
Sydney.
(One of Sydney's rock pools . Photo by Tony Sernack for The New York Tim es.)
Trimble wrote:
Sydney, as we all know shares one of its edges with the Pacific Ocean, and
another with the Blue Mountains. Along the eastern edge are many beaches,
and to my surprise in putting this post together, almost all of these beaches
has its own pool carved somewhere into its rocky perimeter.
The geometry of each is slightly different. They are skewed rectangles,
triangles, they are of indeterminate length - although most are around about
50m - they are embedded along the edges of cliffs, they sit solitary on reefs,
they occasionally like at Narrabeen, spectacularly hinge off the point of a
peninsula. At Wylies Baths they play host to a wonderful timber platform. At
Collaroy, the ocean side edge of the pool bends as an abstraction of the bend
of the cliff behind.
Suprematist fractalogy on the coast of Australia.
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Perhaps after reading Trimble's post, The New York Times then commissioned their
own article about these watering holes.
“Rock pools,” their travel guide proclaims, “are one of Sydney’s defining characteristics,
along with the Opera House and Harbour Bridge, though not as well known.”
Just about every Sydney beach has one, usually at the southern end, to give
swimmers some protection when the southerly winds bring cold air and big
seas. Most have changing rooms and showers, and are free for swimmers.
Serene at low tide, choppy at high, they are, in many ways, the original infinity
pools.
Each pool has its own colorful history. Some were built by wealthy individuals
in the 1800s, when Victorian-era morals banned daytime swimming at the
beach, a concept hard to fathom in a country where going to the beach seems
to be required. Some pools were built by convicts, others during the
Depression. They come in all sizes and shapes, from 50 meters long (roughly
55 yards) and many lanes wide to much smaller boutique pools.
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Sydney today has some 40 traditional public 50-meter pools (New York and
Los Angeles each has two!), which may explain how swimmers from Australia,
with a population around 20 million, were able to haul off 15 medals at the
2004 Olympics in Athens — second only to the United States.
But it might be said that the beginning of Australians’ love affair with swimming
was at the rock pools.
One wonders here if it might not be too far off to say that this infrastructure of leisure is
a key generative matrix of Australian national identity or perhaps of just Sydney's civic
identity.
Reading the article, you sense that so embedded are they in the cultural geography of
the city that they've become an indelible part of its psyche, soaked into its citizens'
genetic makeup after so many decades dipping into these baptismal fonts.
At the very least, though, and if we can go by Trimble's biographical anecdotes and
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those of the commentators to his post, this urban hydrological network is a spatial
generator of collective memory and nostalgia.
I learnt to swim at one of these pools, waking up at dawn to walk down to the
pool with my cousins every morning of every summer for far too many years.
We would trudge down, get shouted at and our strokes demolished by an ex
life guard by the name of Johnny who it seems, had never spent a moment out
of direct contact with the sun and had the skin to prove it. If Johnny was feeling
particularly nasty, he would lead all the kids up to the point, and instruct us all
to jump and swim back to shore.
We suspect that should a more frequented blog were to write of these pools, it would
receive a torrent of reminiscences from Sydneysiders waxing poetic about whiling away
the halcyon days of their youth there; about their very first swimming lessons under
threats of being swept out to sea; about the time when sharks were on the hunt just
outside the trapezoidal walls; and about graduating from these shallow enclaves and
into the vast abyss — their rites of passage.
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In any case, a few things:
1) The most extensive online resource on these pools seems to be the one maintained
by M. L. McDermott, whose dissertation covers their environmental and cultural history.
She also maintains a Flickr account with tons of photos. Unfortunately, both have not
been updated in a while.
2) One of the more interesting facts we read in The New York Times article is that one
pool is only for women and children and is officially exempt from antidiscrimination laws.
“Built in the 1800s, it was long known as the ‘nun’s pool.’ Today, Muslim women in
scarves are more often seen, along with pregnant women and older women.” This pool
is “a venerable Sydney institution.”
3) We were reminded of a proposal by Vicente Guallart — whose Microcoasts we wrote
about previously — for a hexagonal beach layered atop a rocky headland in Vinaròs,
Spain, thus smoothing out the rugged surface for easier occupation. There is also an
artificial wooden island, floating in open waters during the summer and berthed
onshore during the winter, further extending the coastline. In the middle of this mobile
landscape is an opening, a hexagonal ocean pool of sorts.
(Vinaròz Beach, by Vicente Gual lart. Photo courtes y of Gual lart Arch i tects .)
Should a beach, say, in Long Island have its sand eroded away down to jagged
bedrock by sea level rise and the Army Corps of Engineers isn't going to pay for
expensive beach nourishment schemes and coastal fortifications (and not because
they've realized that such efforts will do more harm than good but because, let's face it,
with two wars and a federal treasury doling out hundreds of billions willy-nilly, is there
any money left to be earmarked for projects that will only benefit so few?), this is a
convincing alternative.
4) Maybe there should be a remake of Frank Perry's masterpiece The Swimmer, set
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not in the rotting morass of pre-1968 suburban New York but in the sun-dappled waters
of a heroic landscape.
(Burt Lancas ter is The Swim m er . “Pool by pool they form a river, a l l the way to our
hous e.”)
We're not going to imagine our protagonist suffering from existential angst. It's much
worse than that: he's just watched that Oscar-mongering drivel that is Australia.
To cleanse himself of the movie's gooey confection, he decides to take a dip and run a
few laps in each of the rock pools, a redemptive journey that leads from the movie
theater back to his home.
Along the way, he'll meet kooky characters whose doppelgängers have appeared in
such quirky 1990s Australian fares as Muriel's Wedding, Cosi, Proof, The Adventures
of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Love Serenade, and Flirting.
In the frothy, Champagne surf, he'll stitch together a contemporary narrative and
discover a (more) real Australia.
POSTSCRIPT #1: Super Colossal has a follow-up to their survey of Sydney's ocean
pools. (19 Decem ber 2008)
In the Arch ives :
Rosa Barba Prize 1: Nicolai Kulturcenter
And:
On the coast
2 0 C O M M E N T S —
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ubiquidadeDecember 5, 2008 at 3:35:00 A M CST
check:
http://arquitectura.pt/forum/f105/projecto-piscinas-salinas-_-c-mara-de-lobos-_-madeira-paulo-
david-6065.html
http://arquitectura.pt/forum/f108/projecto-restaurante-_-complexo-piscina-salinas-camara-de-
lobos-paulo-david-6063.html
http://abarrigadeumarquitecto.blogspot.com/2006/12/piscinas-do-atlntico.html
SFDecember 5, 2008 at 5:52:00 A M CST
Go directly to the architect and forget the landscapers…but just in this situation.
Look for Paulo David, the native architect…
AnonymousDecember 5, 2008 at 2:00:00 PM CST
Good photos, but I just can't understand the soundtrack...
love your blog!
|ant
AnonymousDecember 5, 2008 at 5:05:00 PM CST
Hello I'm a student of Landscape Architecture im Porto, Portugal and I might help you in your
quest fot Photos of the global/Paulo David project
I Had posted in my blog last year so take a look :
http://nucleoap.blogspot.com/search?q=ultimas+reportagens
see for your self the site wich I mentioned:
http://www.fernandoguerra.com/salinaslideshow/
congratulations for the excelent blog I think a reference fot those who follow and love
Landscape Architecture
Filipe Teixeira ( Art Historian an Landscape Architecture student)
Sinking CitiesDecember 6, 2008 at 4:08:00 PM CST
Great post. I love the aerial photos of the Sydney pools.
JonathanDecember 6, 2008 at 6:50:00 PM CST
An interesting anomaly amongst the Sydney pools is Clovelly, which was at some point a
narrow rocky bay but has been concreted in on both sides to form a sort of hybrid pool/natural
bay. It's an amazing spot to learn to snorkel! google maps link
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simonDecember 8, 2008 at 4:08:00 A M CST
There is a pool in Newcastle north of Sydney that was hand carved out of the rock shelves by
convicts back in the early 1880's. It is just south of the city centre and it now below a park that
used to be an open cut coalmine (also convict labour). Its only about 3 metres by 4 i think so
its hard to find but a good google earth access would find it.
simonDecember 8, 2008 at 4:10:00 A M CST
1840's i mean
AnonymousDecember 11, 2008 at 8:46:00 A M CST
a great memory of the women's baths in coogee was being invited (during university days) for
an after midnight skinny dip by female friends who checked nobody else was using it (very
respectfully) before inviting me and other males down there.... it was a deep honor to visit ...
AnonymousDecember 13, 2008 at 1:17:00 A M CST
Great blog. The pools look wonderful from the air. So too do the twenty tidal pools in Sydney
Harbour- a legacy of pools built in 100 harbourside locations between the mid 19th century and
mid twentieth century - when Councils built freshwater olympic-sized pools. In the 1930s,
harbour-side suburb had its own pool- in almost every bay. Twenty tidal pools remain and are
popular with locals. they're great for swimming - but not after a big rain, when stormwater flows
into the harbour..
KyriuDecember 13, 2008 at 9:34:00 A M CST
Another link on Madeira pools:
http://www.grundfoss.dk/web/homept.nsf/Webopslag/CAMO-6DZELP
AnonymousDecember 18, 2008 at 9:25:00 A M CST
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.nelsonbridge
December 18, 2008 at 11:35:00 A M CST
Amazing.
The aerial shots are beautiful.
Alexander TreviDecember 18, 2008 at 11:45:00 A M CST
I had to delete the comment posted above by Anonymous (DECEMBER 18, 2008 9:25:00 AM
CST), because the long, unbroken URLs were messing up the layout. I'm replicating the
comment below but now with clickable links.
-----
It's not exactly an ocean pool, but also check out copenhagen's harbour pool by danish
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architects BIG:
[link]
Another personal favorit is the Badeschiff in the Berlin Spree river, imagine it being towed
through the channels of Amsterdam...
[link]
It reminds me of Rem Koolhaas's Story of the Pool in Delirious New York in which Russian
Constructivists arrive in New York City by swimming in a giant pool. In order to get there, they
have to swim in the opposite direction...
[link]
-----
Thanks for the links, meanwhile. And also thanks to everyone else who has commented and
provided links. Much, much appreciated.
o f f s e tJanuary 7, 2009 at 1:21:00 PM CST
An amazing Flickr set of the sea pool at Newcastle Beach taken by Naomi Frost.
Also, Quatro Ribeiras Natural Pools on the coast of Terceira Island, Portugal. The steps are
quite interesting.
o f f s e tJanuary 7, 2009 at 1:47:00 PM CST
One More. The Tidal Pool at St Malo, Bretagne France. It's huge! And you have to love the fort
in the background.
Alexander TreviJanuary 7, 2009 at 2:33:00 PM CST
Fantastic photos! Thanks! Hope to return to this subject soon.
steffFebruary 18, 2009 at 5:02:00 A M CST
Barcelona's Forum has a seaside pool too, designed by Beth Galí Architects. Some photos to
be found here:
http://flickr.com/photos/turnmastertim/2754838972/
there's a nice pdf-document on Beth Galís webpage too.
I quite like the raw style with the concrete cubes as a barrier, but i have to admit that i hardly
ever saw anybody swimming there.
MaraMay 22, 2009 at 6:36:00 A M CDT
Hello, I think can provide additional information on Salinas swimming pools in Madeira.
There were 3 separated projects that lead to the landscape that shows in your picture, the
polls, the garden and restaurant and the walking path. You can check in the website of the
project owner www.sociedademetropolitana.pt .
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—— NEWER POST OLDER POST ——
In Madeira you can also find the Porto Moniz swimming pools and several other polls that take
advantage of the natural environment of the island.
The links below are from the official tourism website and from “Olhares fotografia online”.
http://www.madeiratourism.org/pls/wsm/wsmwgal0.imagem_grande?
p_id=46&p_doc=MM000247&p_lingua=en
http://olhares.aeiou.pt/piscinas_porto_moniz.htm
Hope you find the info useful.
AnonymousJuly 13, 2010 at 10:02:00 A M CDT
@4:
you may be interested in the work "the swimmer" by german artist sascha pohle:
http://www.saschapohle.net/The%20Swimmer/theswimmer.html
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