The swimming pool with views above and below
June 29, 2011
If at the time the construction of the Guggenheim Museum renewed the entire area of the estuary of Bilbao attracting tourism, in the rehabilitation of facades and the interior of the Alhóndiga transformation, located in Rekalde, commercial and administrative centre of Ensanche, been thought more in the enjoyment of the own Bilbao. The Alhóndiga is a multidisciplinary space, open to all citizens, and oriented towards knowledge, well-being and fun. A leisure centre, with all kinds of catering services, without forgetting the culture and the added value of a very wide and offer specific to physical exercise.
'mens sana in corpore sano'
EMC has been associated itself with the maximum of Juvenal of 'mens sana in corpore sano'. Physical activity rises in the Center "with the desire to combine the traditional exercise on health with a comprehensive development of the person". For this reason, along with its cultural offerings, its sports offer includes a physical activity center, which employs more than 7,750 m2, distributed over four floors. It has a large gymnasium of 1,100 square meters opened almost every day of the year with equipment to exercise any kind of physical activity, a swimming pool, six activities and two changing rooms.
The last plant of AlhóndigaBilbao, the fourth, houses a swimming pool with solárium. The swimming pool of AlhondigaBilbao is opened the seven days of the week during all the year and almost all day and besides, during the summer opens to his side the terrace of the sun. In the floor of one of the three glasses there is small recuadros of glass, what allows to see to more than 9 metres/meters of height —from the atrium of entrance— the feet and the silhouettes of the people swimming. The glass used in the swimming pool is a glass antideslizante of security laminado with SentryGlas of Dupont. SentryGlass Is an intercalario whose peculiarity is that it endows to the glass laminado of a resistance very supoerior to the normal.
The 'Water' form, pits host courses for swimming and watersports. They are more than 70 targeted activities such as swimming courses, both children and adults, Antepartum swimming, Aqua fitness, Aqua aerobics and a long etcetera. In addition, following the idiosyncrasy of the Bilbao cultural center, under the premise of a "space for all", EMC began the last October, a course of swimming for disabled.
The old wine store
In 1905 a young Ricardo Bastida was commissioned to build a new alhóndiga in Albia Ensanche bilbaíno and raises a large industrial, functional and advanced building serving of wines, liquors and spirits store. Modernist style, it was erected in brick and reinforced concrete, finishing its construction in 1909. From the 1970s to relocate their activity to the new alhóndiga located in Rekalde, the building was waiting to be fitted with a new utility. Declared "well of Cultural interest' by the Basque Government (1999), celebrated its 100 years of existence after the rehabilitation of facades and inner transformation, which includes the construction of new spaces for the hand of Philippe Starck. The only thing that has been preserved of the construction of Bastida are the artistic original facades. T'HO has three buildings four floors with seven more underground. Of these, five are intended for parking and two cinemas with a large exhibition hall and an auditorium with seating capacity for 400 people. One of the most remarkable interior spaces are the 43 columns of 3 metres in height located at the hall, created by film setting Lorenzo Baraldi expert in different styles, and various decorative materials such as marble, bronze, wood, brick, glazed terracotta or stone Lecce creating a heterogeneous decorative style of special beauty.