Seine Open-Air Swimming Site / Mater Studio

The Grenelle Seine swimming site offered a unique opportunity to take part in a historic project for Parisians, while reaffirming the role of architects, even in highly technical undertakings. After a hundred-year ban on swimming in the Seine, Mater Studio designed and led the construction of a structure that had yet to exist: a seasonal and fully demountable site, designed to accommodate 300 people, including a 950 m², 60-metre-long swimming area, a 415 m² floating structure, and 480 m² of facilities on land. The entire site was installed on the footprint of a former car park and was designed not to disturb the neighbouring residential barges, with which it shares the entire water infrastructure. But above all, the challenge was to invite the public to take a gesture that is as simple as it is intimidating: to dive into the Seine. To achieve this, the project had to act simultaneously on three key levels: the site, the body, and the imagination.