MVRDV unveils design for Holy Water swimming pool in former Dutch church

Dutch studios MVRDV and Zecc Architecten have revealed plans to overhaul a vacant church in the Netherlands by adding a swimming pool with an adjustable floor that allows visitors to "walk on water".

In their design for the Holy Water swimming facility, MVRDV and Zecc Architecten plan to create a new social venue while preserving historic elements of the former St Francis of Assisi Church in Heerlen, which was built in 1923 and has been left empty for two years.

In the church's nave, the existing floor will be removed and a swimming pool will be added to the centre of the building.

It will feature an adjustable floor that can be raised entirely to hide the pool below, and the room can be flooded with a shallow layer of water so visitors can "walk on water inside the church", according to MVRDV.

"The vacancy rate of churches is increasing, so we need to come up with new, creative ideas for what we can do with these buildings," said MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas.

"Why not give these churches a social function again, as they used to have? A public swimming pool is ideally suited for this."

"Imagine swimming the backstroke with a view of a church vault and stained-glass windows," Maas continued.

"By covering the entire pool area with a small layer of water, you can also create a beautiful visual effect, allowing the church to return to its original form and appear even larger and more impressive through the reflection."

Corridors in the church's former aisles will have windows in arched openings overlooking the pool, leading to changing rooms and a cafe located at the rear of the building.

Church pews will be reused as seating for swimmers around the pool and as bar tables in the cafe, while the pulpit, where sermons were once delivered, will become the lifeguard seat.

Insulation will be added to the exterior of the church's roof to preserve views of the original interior materials, and rows of lamps over the pool will double as visual guides for lane swimmers.

Other recent adaptive reuse projects by MVRDV include the transformation of a 1980s museum in Albania into a cultural hub and plans to overhaul former military bases in the Netherlands into housing.

The images are courtesy of MVRDV.

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