Team:	Susanne Lorenz, Berlin + AMP Arquitectos, Tenerife
Place:	Arena, Berlin-Treptow
Project:	Bathing Ship, Spree Bridge

The Spree Bridge bathing ship by the Berlin artist Susanne Lorenz and the Spanish architects AMP Artengo-Menis-Pastrana is a living bridge to the Spree. Consisting of a swimming pool and two wooden plateaus, linked by broad bases, the ensemble transforms the Spree to a public meeting point and a place for communication.

The bathing ship itself is a used Schubleichter (centrepiece of a container ship which is common on the Spree) which will be converted to an ultra-modern swimming pool. At night, the Spree Bridge is a real river attraction with its blue-green illuminated water surface.

From an engineering perspective, the bathing ship presents an outstanding challenge. As ships usually founder when filled with water, a masterly achievement in construction was necessary to solve this problem.

The Spree Bridge will be realised in close cooperation with the arena, where it also anchors for the next five years. Here, at a historical place between Oberbaum- and Elsen Bridge, it ties in with the Berlin bathing culture of the past. Until the turn of the last century, fifteen private Spree baths existed in Berlin. These baths were made up either of a separation of the bathing area within the Spree. Or they featured basins filled with fresh water, so called “bathing ships”. Later, the industrial growth around the Spree caused such severe pollution that most of the baths had to be shut down before the First World War. But now it’s time for a renaissance of the river oases.