Aiming towards an urban community - a technical demanding bathhouse is built by local benefactors in Ålesund

Picture: Kristoffer Antonsen

Working with real estate development, one need’s to be able to wear many hats. To know a little bit about everything is important since the business isn’t solely about a building – it’s about the entire community evolving around it. In this business, one needs to think about location, purpose and never the least sustainability. We’ve been fortunate to have been involved with local pioneers when delivering products to a new bathhouse in Ålesund. While it might seem as a very regular building project, there’s much more to be told about the story.

Bybadet Ålesund isn’t just your regular bathhouse, it’s a strategic decision towards an urban community. The local pioneers behind the project are visualizing Ålesund as an attractive future destination, and their goal is for Ålesund to have at least 10 more of this type of attractions. Besides being a part of the future endaveour, the bathhouse is also literally a part of the local site. The building is connected with the city center through pipes that collects excess heat from the transformers, and which also provides cooling.
“It has been technically demanding for several reasons, the geometry of the building in relation to the use of sloping surfaces, roof and wall. There’s for example a cast-in-place 40-degree inward wall at the entrance, and the east wall collars inwards in parallel with the slope of the street outside. It is materially and executive technically very complicated to cast walls that slope in two different directions”, says Hans-Petter Brandal, project manager at Veidekke Entreprenør AS.
The city bathhouse accommodates a 50-meter pool, a diving tower and two water slides. The pool has an entire floor dedicated for technical equipment. For instance, the pool has a modern anti-drowning system, which is simply described as a system where there’s cameras installed at the bottom of the pool, and they notice if anyone would lay still on the bottom – that will set off the alarm. Beside all the technical aspects, the design of this bathhouse is something extraordinary. There are tiles on all areas in and around the pool and locker rooms, and the floors in the hallways are made out of concrete. The roof is partially made out of wood, and to meet the challenges with high sounds, sound-absorbing materials out of wood and cambric boards have been used. The exterior is a beautifully combined with granite and a glass and aluminium facade.

Architect: Invit Arkitekter AS og Kosberg Arkitektkontor AS (Norconsult AS)
Metal builder: H-fasader AS
Investor: Veidekke Entreprenör AS
SAPA Solutions: SAPA 4150 Facade, SAPA 2050 Door, SAPA 2086 Door och SAPA 1086 window