Brescia’s swimming center

With this new swimming center in Brescia, Italy, Camillo Botticini defies the logic according to which sports facilities are withdrawn objects disconnected from the context, creating massive urban architecture, a block of iridescent brown Klinker cut by deep fissures.

Camillo Botticini, Centro natatorio, Mompiano, Brescia. Photo Niccolò Galeazzi
The project for the realization of the Brescia’s swimming center, is located in the district of Mompiano in the north part of the city, near the football stadium.
The volume is characterized as an urban architecture, open to a specific relationship with the sorroundings, against the logic of sports building seen as ubiquitous object, placeable in each site.
Camillo Botticini, Centro natatorio, Mompiano, Brescia. In apertura e sopra: photo Niccolò Galeazzi
Camillo Botticini, Swimming Center, Mompiano, Brescia, Italy. Top and above: photo Niccolò Galeazzi

The architectural theme is expressed by treating the compact compact block of the brown Klinker (84 x 42 x 9 meters) through a sequence of excavated fronts, that change its character in relatioship to the interior spaces and the different conditions of external reference.

This deep cuts crossing the volume and bringing the light inside the pool spaces, create precise visual relationships between the different spaces. Between the cuts of the west side there are the two staircases that connect the locker room with the public entrance on the south side of the swimmig pool placed on the northern part of the complex.

Camillo Botticini, Centro natatorio, Mompiano, Brescia. Photo Alessandro Galperti
Camillo Botticini, Swimming Center, Mompiano, Brescia, Italy. Photo Alessandro Galperti

The distribution organizes three functional parts: a main  big room with a pool for water polo (33 x 25 m) equipped with a 800 seat grandstand, a nucleus of changing rooms on three levels, (athletes, users and fitness) and a room with two small pools for courses.

The main room has a large window facing the north outside lawn and to the east side it opens toward a patio with big bamboo’s plants. On the south side, facing the street, behind the grandstand, a glass wall illuminates the underground technical spaces.

Camillo Botticini, Centro natatorio, Mompiano, Brescia. Photo Alessandro Galperti
Camillo Botticini, Swimming Center, Mompiano, Brescia, Italy. Photo Alessandro Galperti

The big pool room’s west internal elevation presents two vertical cuts that connect this area to the smaller pools and the public entrance.

In the west block, where the locker rooms and the two small pools for the courses are located, an horizontal window runs around the corners creating a visual continuity that connects the small pool hall with the one of water polo. On the east side, a loggia opens the gym to the exthernal  swimming pools, while another double-height loggia with a bar is in direct relation with the south public entrance.


Swimming Center, Mompiano, Brescia, Italy
Program: sports center
Architects: Camillo Botticini with F. Craca and A. Foresti - ATI, N. Martinoli and Studio Montanari
Structures: Studio Montanari, Claudio Toniolo
Collaborators: Michela Cibaldi, Ignazio Marchetti
Systems: Milano progetti – Studio di Ingegneria. Palumbo ingegneri associati (mechanical equipment), Studio CVR Engineering (electrical systems)
Construction supervision: Marco Rossi, Alessio Rossi
Contractor: Campana Costruzioni srl
Procedure Manager: Vera Sabatti
Area: 3,261 sqm (covered area); 12,000 sqm (outdoor)
Completion: 2015

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