The relationship between cities and water has been central to urban discourse for several decades. Since the late 1970s, the wave of large-scale urban regeneration projects has often taken water — rivers, canals, ports, and waterfronts — as a starting point for reclaiming deindustrialized, polluted, or neglected territories. In many European and North American cities, the transformation of former port, industrial, or infrastructural zones has aimed to redefine entire districts through new public spaces, housing, parks, and accessible riverfronts.
15 innovative urban beach projects for going to the beach in the city
From Basel to Mexico City, urban beaches are one of the most interesting challenges in metropolitan design. Discover our selection here.
Courtesy of gh3
Courtesy of gh3
Courtesy Friends of +Pool
Courtesy Friends of +Pool
Courtesy Zürich Tourismus
Courtesy Zürich Tourismus
View Article details
- Romina Totaro
- 07 July 2025
One example is Battery Park City in New York, developed from the 1980s on reclaimed land along the Hudson River, adjacent to the original World Trade Center site. Before the area was formally redeveloped, a temporary urban beach had emerged spontaneously on the site, used informally by residents for swimming and leisure during a pause in construction—an improvised and unplanned aquatic space in the heart of the city.
Today, in the context of climate crisis and increasingly intense urban heatwaves, the question of urban swimmability has returned with urgency. In many landlocked cities, new initiatives seek to reopen access to rivers, canals, and basins through ecological filtration, light infrastructures, and renewed forms of collective use of water. These projects combine environmental mitigation, climate adaptation, and redefinition of the public realm, reframing the everyday relationship between urban dwellers and water.
After decades of battling pollution, the Seine is finally fit for swimming. The river, a symbol of the city, was used to host open water swimming events during the Paris 2024 Olympics, sparking major controversy after several athletes fell ill during training sessions in the same waters. Now, for the first time, swimming is open to the public as well, marking an important moment in the city’s history. Paris now boasts urban beaches along the Seine at Bercy, Bras Marie and Grenelle.
Berlin can boast one of the best urban beaches in the world, built in 2004 and designed by architect Fernando Menis. In fact, from May to September you can cool off at the Badeschiff, a stylish floating bathhouse and beach area where you can relax and take yoga or stand-up paddleboard lessons. The pool is located in the city center, floating in the river, in an old coal barge, like the ones that still transport materials along this waterway on a daily basis. The barge was converted into a swimming pool and a wooden platform was added, taking on the role of a beach, a recreational space where you can relax and have fun.
In Basel, the most popular sport in the summer months is swimming along the banks of the Rhine. The swimming route begins on the banks of the Kleinbasel, near the Tinguely Museum, and ends just before the Dreirosenbrücke bridge. The red buoys serve to protect swimmers and boaters from accidents. A unique opportunity then to be able to immerse yourself in the city's history and culture while swimming in the river.
In Milan, on the other hand, we can find the iconic Idroscalo, a 1.6-square-kilometer artificial lake fed by groundwater from the Lambro River. The idea of providing the city of Milan with a seaplane terminal – alongside the work on a planned Milan-Po navigable canal – dates back to 1926. By the late 1930s, the Idroscalo was already known as the "sea of Milan." All along the basin, bathers – with umbrellas, bathing suits and picnic supplies – used to spend their Milanese summer. After a period of a total ban on bathing, people returned to the Idroscalo in 2010.
This long, narrow island in central Vienna, a leafy 21-kilometer-long strip of land in the middle of the Danube, is not only part of the flood protection system, but the very focal point of Vienna's summer scene. Not to mention the 42 kilometres of sand, grass, and pebble beaches it offers – including a 250-meter-long family beach – as well as cafes, restaurants, bars, and bicycle and pedestrian paths. While the island is set up for relaxation, those looking for a little action should head to the Danube Canal and Strandbar Herrmann to find the right combination of cocktails and lounge chairs as well as live sports and club nights.
The Danish capital has a number of attractively designed harbor baths and urban beaches. There are four places in the city where you can dive into cool clear waters: the Fisketorvet harbor bathhouse, which has earned the nickname Copencabana; the newest, the Coral Baths at Sluseholmen, which opened in 2011; and the Svanemølle beach in the Østerbro district. But Islands Brygge baths are perhaps the most in vogue. Designed by architects Bjarke Ingels and Julien De Smedt, the baths feature a sunbathing lawn, barbecues, and street food, making it a popular summertime hangout.
Perhaps the most beautiful of the city's urban beaches is Amsterdam Roest, a post-industrial space in eastern downtown with a sandy beach dotted with artwork made from recycled waste materials. There is also a huge market and during the summer the beach is the site of film screenings and events. There is a similar atmosphere at Blijburg aan Zee, a beachside venue in eastern Ijburg. Created as a pop-up summer space, the club, café, and event space is a rustic hangout and, when the sun goes down and the lanterns are lit, a magical place to spend a warm evening.
Eighty-five tons of sand aside, London's Southbank Centre is already one of the most interesting places to visit in the capital, most of all since the new Tate Modern extension has been added to the landscape of a long stroll connecting the Royal Festival Hall to the Millennium Bridge. During the summer, the Southbank Centre is enhanced with an urban riverside beach as part of the Festival of Love, which features an extensive program of free, outdoor events.
In early 2016, the city of Gothenburg opened a competition with the goal of developing a permanent water park. Won by the MARELD + atelier le balto collaboration, the goal of the project was to allow visitors to enjoy both the urban and activity-focused landscape, along with the ruderal and unplanned areas of the littoral and Kvillepiren. Here, local coastal-inspired flora, fauna, and habitats help unite these places, while visitors can experience a landscape that gradually transitions from an active, urban setting to a calmer, more natural one.
Starting with this example, Mexico City inaugurated a free public beach program, introduced in the capital during Semana Santa. The idea was to provide a recreational area for the 80 percent of citizens who do not leave the landlocked city during the vacation season. Mexico City is the hottest and most populous in the country, so one can imagine how popular these beaches are: after the success of Playa Villa Olimpica in 2007, the city built nine more.
The first major public space to be built on Toronto's lakefront in decades, HTO is a 6-acre park and public beach funded by the City of Toronto to attract new audiences to the shoreline and redefine Lake Ontario's derelict, once-industrial lakefront. Because the site was a brownfield, cost-effective environmental solutions included lining the contaminated soils and using dispersing infiltration wells to prevent contaminated runoff from flowing into the lake.
Built from the remains of a floating railroad bridge that was deposited on the riverbed, Pier 4 is planted with native species to encourage its continued evolution as a protected habitat reserve. The beach design incorporates innovative structures designed by ECOncrete to mimic the natural tide pools typically found along rocky shorelines. Some of these pools are accessible to visitors and offer an interactive demonstration of the park's diversity of habitats for marine animals and plant life.
Located in a public park in Edmonton, this pool is the first in Canada to operate with a completely natural filtration system, without the use of chlorine or chemical agents. Designed by Canadian studio gh3*, the structure combines understated architectural elements with a carefully managed landscape, integrating basins, wetlands, and biological filters. The intervention is part of a municipal programme for the ecological reconversion of public spaces. Opened in 2018, it serves as a model for low-impact recreational infrastructure.
Planned for the waters of the East River, +POOL is a floating swimming pool project that integrates a filtration system capable of making the river water itself swimmable. The plus-shaped design divides the structure into zones for lap swimming, water sports, and children’s activities. Currently under development, the project aims to offer an accessible and sustainable public facility. Led by an interdisciplinary collective, it contributes to the broader debate on environmental quality in dense urban contexts. Opening is expected in 2025.
In Zurich, swimming in rivers and lakes is fully integrated into urban life. The city has invested in light infrastructure and water quality monitoring systems to make public spaces along the Limmat River and Lake Zurich accessible for swimming. Piers, floating platforms, and green areas allow for informal bathing in natural and highly central locations.