sponsored by Autostadt Wolfsburg
The swim ring is a swimming pool for all bodies of water, and a cheerful life raft; it is an adaptive and preventive statement, usable at all water levels. The swim ring, 35 meters broad, is structured in an outer ring with areas for small piers and water basins with plants, which work as a constructed wetland, as well as a round swimming pool.
The swim ring is supplied from the surrounding water (for example, river in the city, lagoon), which first flows into the plant basins and, after it has been cleansed there, can be used as pool water for swimming. From time to time, clean water is released into the surrounding water.
Swimming in the swim ring will cause a continuous purification of the surrounding river water. So we can imagine a future scenario, where the water of the swimming pool is no longer separated from the exterior water, and people are able to swim directly in the water of the river or lagoon.
For this project, Susanne Lorenz cooperates with the biologist Dr. Stephan Pflugmacher, who specializes in water purification: polluted water flows into the plant on one side, remains there between three to five days, and then flows out at the other end. In that time, the aquatic plants have time to absorb the pollutants, removing them from the water. These pollutants are metabolized in the plant, i.e. chemically transformed and then either stored or used as nutrition.
The prognoses for the destruction of Venice, and the degree of pollution of the lagoon waters offer strong, representative images of »sustainable neglect« and the practice of risk management. They are both the cause and the background of the conception of the swim ring. The idea can be transferred to other urban bodies of water with low or very low water quality; here, too, swimming will cause a successive cleansing of the water. Thus the swim ring is not just a site-specific commentary, but a usable, mobile metaphor.
Further information
Website Susanne Lorenz