Weyermanns­haus Bern

0268Weyermanns­haus Bern

The Weyermannshaus Sport and Recrea­tion Facility “Weyerli” is located to the west of Bern, in a district that will be trans­formed into a new urban quarter in the coming decades. Require­ments for outdoor space devoted to leisure and recrea­tion can there­fore be expected to grow signifi­cantly, and the utiliza­tion of the sport and recrea­tion facility to intensify accord­ingly.

Today, the open-air swimming pool, with its outbuildings dating from the 1950s, is among the most impor­tant municipal facil­ities of its kind in Switzerland. Among the architec­tural proper­ties belong­ing to the city of Bern, it is classi­fied as meriting land­marks protec­tion. The outdoor area is vital to the city’s history, and is moreover regarded as worthy of preser­vation by virtue of its existing inventory and status as a land­scaping achieve­ment. In 1971, the “Weyerli” (little pond) was expanded to become today’s Weyermannshaus Sport and Recrea­tion Facility, with an indoor pool and an open-air artificial ice rink.

The para­mount objective of the architects is to preserve as much unbuilt sur­face area and vege­ta­tion as possible, thereby provid­ing maxi­mal shadowed areas and moisture. This aim will be ful­filled through a com­pact volume with a mini­mal foot­print that occu­pies only the outer­most corner of the parcel, and whose roof will more­over be land­scaped. The required spaces will be assembled so as to occupy as little sur­face area as possible, allowing the various utiliza­tions to benefit from short distances. The diver­gent heights of the individ­ual halls result in a build­ing that is composed of multiple pavilion-style elements, thereby subdividing the enormous volume play­fully. This results in a flatten­ing effect from the street toward the open-air swimming pool, with the build­ing seeming to merge with the park.

Thanks to numerous entry points and pathways within the park, access to the building is possible from all compass direc­tions. As a conse­quence of this centrality, and for the sake of the marvel­lous view, the roofed main entrance is oriented toward the middle of the park. The corner of the building is occupied by the ticket office, which allows the simulta­neous servicing of the outdoor area and entrance hall.