Above – between – below is a large-scale public building that holds a sports center, a swimming hall and a spa in a central location in Viinikanlahti, Tampere. It is a balanced, contemporary landmark in an urban setting, that not only works together with the challenging location, but elevates the area and its residents’ urban everyday lives as a whole. Since the building is situated in the sauna capitol of the world, we challenged ourselves to create a new, one-of-a-kind, urban sauna experience in Tampere.
The name of the design and the main concept come from the Finnish national lakeside scenery, which brings together outdoor exercisers, sauna goers and swimmers just like our new building would. The familiar lakeside view can be divided into three parts: lake below, nature between and sky above. The above – between – below re-imagines and combines these three parts and the elements they hold in the Finnish lakeside scenery and also in the national Finnish scenery of Tammerkoski.
In above – between – below tradition meets re-imagination, nature meets manmade, organic meets geometric, activity meets tranquility and people meet people.
