Getterön Fifth Bay Public Bath by MARELD

Bathing for everyone!

One of the main goals of this project has been to create a public beach that simplifies bathing for as many people as possible, regardless of functional variation. The site should be easy to understand and feel safe and beautiful to visit.

The beach is located within a nature reserve where one of the greater biological values is a sand heath with low-growing windswept vegetation. Closest to the sea are a sandy beach and cliffs. MARELD’s proposal has been placed on the border between the beach and the cliffs. The design is based on the character of the landscape with the flat heath, the barren cliffs and the rolling sea. The choice of material has been kept simple with wood, concrete and steel.

The project includes a bathing area with a jetty, ramps, furniture, changing rooms, a walkway, and a playground – all with a focus on accessibility, or rather on making all the functions that belong to a normal bathing experience available to everyone, everything from being able to hang in a deck chair, change in the locker room, buy an ice cream, visit the playground, to the bath itself!

A bathing experience for everyone has been created through increased accessibility to both beach and water. Ramps and a jetty with a wide and welcoming staircase make it easy for most people to get in (and out of) the sea to enjoy a swim. You can rest in a deck chair on the jetty, get into the water via a large staircase, smaller stairs or ramps. Once in the water, there is a floating jetty a short distance out as a safe point between you and the horizon. Out on the floating jetty there are both ladders and climbing handles for a more playful way to get up. Once up, it is optional if you want to jump or climb into the water again.

There is also a pedestrian walkway over the sand heath that makes it easy to roll, or walk, to buy an ice cream at the other end of the beach. The walkway is designed in wood and metal grate flooring with special consideration for the sensitive vegetation of the sand heath. On the way across the heath you pass a playground where you can roll over a wavy footbridge, into a boat and out on a jetty, go on the swings, watch some birds or hide in a bird’s nest.