25.05. - 25.05.2019

Symposium: ‹River Tactics›

11 AM-3.30 PM (in English)

As part of the opening festivities surrounding the exhibition “Swim City”, the S AM Swiss Architecture Museum is organising the free daytime symposium “River Tactics”.
Urban river swimming in Switzerland takes its place within a global constellation of different cities, projects and actors attempting to reclaim urban waterways as spaces for people. With the increasing migration of heavy industry from city centres in recent decades, urban rivers, canals, lakes and harbours have once again emerged as contested spaces in many cities across the (post-)industrial world. Who has access to these spaces? Who is allowed to profit from them? What can be done to ensure that these spaces remain democratic and inclusive? Urban swimming, as a tactic for appropriating these spaces for human use, takes on a new urgency in this context – revealing how this activity has been a political one all along.
“Swim City” features six international initiatives that have been engaged in transforming the waterways in their respective cities into spaces for swimming and recreation. Some propose alternative visions through design interventions; others lobby for a political paradigm shift through research and direct action in public space. Common to them all is an approach to urban design that departs from purely built solutions, instead developing a multifaceted practice at the intersection of politics, design and science.
In this symposium, representatives from Flussbad Berlin, POOL IS COOL (Brussels), Thames Baths (London), Ilot Vert (Paris), Charles River Swimming Initiative (Boston) and +POOL (New York) will be presenting their work and the strategies they have adopted to make urban swimming a reality in their local contexts.

The participation of these six projects in the exhibition was made possible with the support of the Future Architecture Platform.

Programme:

11:00 am – 11:15 am:     Greeting
11:15 am – 11:45 am:     Flussbad Berlin, Tim Edler (Berlin, DE)
11:50 am – 12:20 pm:     POOL IS COOL, Paul Steinbrück (Brussels, BE)
12:25 pm – 12:55 pm:     Ilot Vert, Romain De Santis, Axel de Stampa        
                                        and Sophie Picoty (Paris, FR)
01:00 pm – 01:45 pm:     Lunch
01:50 pm – 02:20 pm:     Thames Baths, Chris Romer-Lee, Studio Octopi (London, UK)
02:25 pm – 02:55 pm:     Charles River Swimming Initiative, Renata von Tscharner,
                                        Charles River Conservancy (Boston, US)
03:00 pm – 03:30 pm:    +POOL Kara Meyer (New York, US)
03:30 pm:                        Apéro and discussions

Location​: Alte Universität, Rheinsprung 9/11, Basel
Language: English
Admission: Free


picture credits:
River Swimming, Basel, ©: Lucía de Mosteyrín 
Charles River Swimming Initiative, Swimmable Charles, Rendering © Stantec, courtesy Charles River Conservancy
Flussbad Berlin, Schleusenbrücke  © realities:united / Flussbad Berlin e.V.
Ilot Vert, Rendering © Ilot Vert
Plus Pool © Family New York, courtesy Friends of +POOL, Zoomed-out-view
Pool Is Cool, St Catherine, © Paul Steinbrück / POOL IS COOL
Thames Baths, South Bank Baths © StudioOctopi & Picture Plane