在1979年，就在他们开业后一年，赫尔佐格和德梅隆赢得了一项为瑞士里恩市政府设计公共游泳池的竞赛。在之后的几年里，反复经过几个未能实现的方案，这个项目在1982年被无限期搁置了。二十五年之后，在2007年，赫尔佐格和德梅隆被委托重新思考这个项目，并建议抛弃传统的泳池概念，通过机械化和化工的水处理系统使泳池生物性地渗透进自然环境。
In 1979, just a year after founding their practice, Herzog & de Meuron won a competition to design a public swimming pool for the Swiss municipality of Riehen. After developing several unrealized iterations over the following years, the project was put on hold indefinitely in 1982. Twenty-five years later, in 2007, Herzog & de Meuron were commissioned to rethink the project and proposed to abandon the conventional pool concept with its mechanical and chemical water treatment systems in favor of a pool closer to natural condition with biological filtration.

里恩天然湖以当地的天然水池作为模板作为一个泳池湖来处理，即巴塞尔传统的木质莱茵河畔的浴池，将活泼的气氛与永恒的外观结合起来。
种植过滤瀑布净化了水源，并划定了湖泊的软边界，场地的南边界通向河流，仅以绿篱隔开。一堵多功能的木墙，提供了200米长的日光浴棚和休闲躺椅，遮挡了场地西部和北部与邻近的道路，与东部的入口相连接。
Understood as a bathing lake, Naturbad Riehen was modeled after the natural pool on the local “Badi”, Basel ’s traditional wooden Rhine-side baths, which combine a lively atmosphere with a timeless appearance.
Planted filtering cascades purify the water and define the soft edge of the lake, as the site’s southern perimeter opens up to the river, bounded only by a green hedge. A multi-functional timber wall, that offers a 200-meter long sheltered solarium with recliners, shields the site on the north and west from the adjacent roadway as it connects to an entrance on the east that provides support amenities.

生物水处理池——浴池的非机械化核心——嵌入了路另一端的坡地景观。同这里提供的诸多休闲设施一起，它们形成了向当地居民全年开放的娱乐区。从生态承载力的角度考虑，设计为每天可容纳2000人洗浴。
The biological water treatment basins – the non-mechanical “heart” of the baths – are embedded in the sloping landscape on the opposite side of the road. Together with various leisure facilities provided here, they form a recreational area open the whole year round to the municipal population. In terms of ecological cleaning capacity, the baths are designed to accommodate 2 000 bathers per day.

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