The Protection of the Public Swimming Pools in Brussels-Capital Region

None of the public swimming pools of the Brussels-Capital Region benefits from any heritage protection. Recent strict sanitary norms endanger this rather unrecognised heritage in being. An exhaustive study is meant to orientate the regional authorities towards a heritage policy. It reveals that the Brussels-Capital Region presents a complete overview of the swimming pool throughout de twentieth century. From the oldest public swimming pool in Belgium, Art Deco vessels and streamline design modernism from the interwar period to great architectural gestures of the 1960's, those swimming pools reveal the architectural, typological and functional evolution from social and hygienic needs to sportive and educational ambitions, and later leisure activities. Once being fully understood, categorised and analysed, an objective dialogue of values gives the protection priorities: from complete to partial protection, to easy actions maintaining the respect of the esprit d'époque, or the reuse of abandoned parts such as Turkish baths and foyers.