Expedition Swim

Expedition Swim is an experimental series of swimming events during the summer of 2019 in 3 parks of Brussels, organised by the civil platform ‘Pool is Cool’, for which Maximiliaan Royakkers and I designed a pavilion.

‘Pool is Cool’ is a popular civil platform aiming at the creation of an outdoor swimming facility in Brussels region. During the summer of 2019 they received the permission to test the possibility of swimming in the ponts of 3 parks in Brussels, in order to envision the impact this human activity has on the ‘natural environment’ of these parks.

Together with theatre collectif K.A.K. we conceived these events as ‘camps for a pseudo-scientific fieldwork project’.

Maximiliaan and I were in charge
of the spatial arrangement of these events. We built eight units in wood and canvas that served as changing room, off-grid shower, information point, scientist desk... The design was something in between a 18th century park ‘folie’ and a colonial tent (or contemporary glamping set-up). The cabines could be mul- tiplied and arranged differently (in a row or a circle) depending on the location and size of the public.

The actors of K.A.K. dressed up as scientists and inhabited the struc- ture. Their ‘scientific’ surveys of the urban swimmers and absurd analysis of its results revealed the ambivalent relation humans (or urban dwellers in particular) have with nature.