We believe swimming can provide answers to some of the most complex questions facing cities all over the world, from economic renewal to climate change. These are the people making it happen.
Swimmable Cities is a new global partnership of experts determined to make sure everyone can enjoy the right to swim. In July 2024, Swimmable Cities launched its new Charter – 10 principles which will empower experts in design, policy development, public health and much more, to share ideas, resources and expertise.
Cities around the world, from Sydney to Washington D.C., are starting to embrace the social, economic and ecological value of swimming. For example, Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, recently shared his plans to make the Thames ‘swimmable’ within the next decade, following completion of a new £5 billion (yes, billion!) super sewer under London.
In fact, there are already amazing stories of cities which have long embraced the potential of swimmable cities, such as the regeneration of Copenhagen’s iconic harbour baths. These stories can provide all kinds of valuable lessons in design, investment, engineering and education to new projects and campaigns.
And, of course, there is the Seine, which, after its own €1.4 billion clean-up, will take centre stage during the 10km marathon swim at the 2024 Olympic Games.
‘What’s happening in Paris is a once-in-a-generation moment,’ Matt Sykes explains, Convenor of the Swimmable Cities’ Steering Group. ‘Young people around the world are watching a political leader, Anne Hidalgo, the Mayor of Paris, stand up for her local river and the planet. That’s a game changer not only for the signatories to our Charter but for everyone involved in the Swimmable Cities movement.’
The OSS is proud to be one of the first signatories to this new Charter. We believe swimming can provide answers to a wide range of complex questions facing cities around the world, from social cohesion and economic innovation, to public health, the ecological crisis and resilience to climate change.
We asked Matt how you can get involved: ‘SWIM!’ he told us. ‘You’re already doing it. Share good news stories. And the big one, write to political leaders and encourage them to sign up to the Charter. We need all levels of support to achieve our goal of 3,000+ signatories by 2030’.
On 17 July 2024, with a week to go before the 2024 Paris Olympics, Anne Hidalgo, Mayor of Paris, swam a respectable 100m crawl down the Seine before emerging to tell the gathered media, ‘a little cool but not so bad’.
Swimming in the Seine has actually been banned for the past 100 years due to dangerous levels of pollution, but in 2016, as part of the French bid to host the Games, Anne Hidalgo promised to clean up the Seine with €1.4 billion to construct new storage facilities and modernise the sewage infrastructure.
While this might be an eye-watering sum, it’s a fraction of the economic benefits expected as a result of the Games, and the investment is also intended to have benefits well beyond 2024, with the announcement of 32 new swimming spots in the Ile-de-France region to open in 2025. In fact, you can already swim for free at two spots in the city centre – Canal Saint-Martin and Bassin de la Villette.
After all the athletes, media and tourists have packed up and gone home, there are always attempts to define the legacy of each Olympic Games, but the 2024 Olympic Games have the potential to mark a sea change in policy and attitudes around the world as cities start to recognise the social, economic and ecological importance of swimming.
APUR Luxigon
What began as an idea for a water-filtering floating swimming pool, conceived by a small group of designers, has since launched a movement to restore New York’s waterways.
Earlier this year, +Pool, the nonprofit water stewardship organisation, proposed to provide the city’s residents with regular access to the urban waters of the Hudson River, Bronx River and Flushing Bay. The 180 square metres shapeshifting pool has multiple uses and will provide clean bathing water for swimmers and dippers, families and swim clubs across New York State. The pool filters water as it floats through its walls, cleaning more than 1,000,000 gallons a day, without chemicals or additives.
New York’s natural resources are being reclaimed for recreation through +Pool’s public swimming ethos and engineering, which is supporting a programme of lifeguard training, swimming lessons and novel beaches.
Find out more here.
+POOL Rendering by Family New York & PlayLab
Once a historic port on the south bank of the Nieuwe Maas River, Rijnhaven began to experience an identity crisis as the harbour moved out of the city centre. Now there is a new development designed to regenerate the area, with a mix of housing, work spaces, shops, restaurants, cultural amenities, a public park and, of course, places to swim.
‘Rotterdam is 30% water and yet we have almost nowhere to swim,’ Lucas Vroom explains, a key member of the team behind this new development, ‘but in the context of increasing heat stress and climate change, we have to adapt, or else people will swim where it’s not safe’.
In fact, people are already swimming at Rijnhaven. The first part of a new floating park opened to swimmers in May 2024 – a public space, free to use, with no specific opening hours. The floating park is expected to be complete in 2027 and a brand new public beach to open in 2028.
‘We want Rijnhaven to be for everyone,’ Lucas explains, reflecting the collaborative spirit of Swimmable Cities. In particular, Lucas praises the organisations which have come together in this project, including the City Executive, Police, Harbour Authority and Environment Service (ODMH) for their ‘willingness to make Rijnhaven a better place for the people who live here’.
An impression of the new development
Urban Plunge was launched in 2022 to accelerate the delivery of swimming sites in waterways across Greater Sydney. Established by Australia’s largest water utility, Sydney Water, the programme responds to changing community expectations about the role water companies play in protecting the health of waterways.
Sydney Water has been a long-term partner of the Parramatta River Catchment Group, helping them to realise the vision for swimming in the Parramatta River over several years.
Segment Lead for Urban Plunge, Leanne Niblock, said, ‘Sydney Water has developed a range of tools and processes to help partners open new swim sites. But we also have a role to play in protecting the health of our waterways through the planning and investment decisions we make.’
‘Addressing the inequity in access to free local swimming spots across the city has been a key driver for the Urban Plunge programme.’
She adds, ‘The COVID-19 pandemic and extended lockdowns highlighted the east-west divide regarding local swimming opportunities.’
‘Those living near the coast had access to our beautiful beaches, but Western Sydney, which experiences significantly higher summer temperatures and has a rapidly expanding population, was missing those same opportunities.’
‘Before the urbanisation of our cities, swimming in local waterways was the norm. We want to try and restore some of that balance.’
Find out more here.
Studio Octopi for Sydney Water
Studio Octopi for Sydney Water
Studio Octopi for Sydney Water
When you think of Brussels, you might not at first imagine a swimmers’ paradise, but Pool is Cool are on a mission to change that.
‘People have always swum in Brussels,’ Paul Steinbrück explains, a co-founder of Pool is Cool, before describing the small islands and meandering streams which once flowed through the city – ‘like Bruges or Venice, but not as picturesque’.
During the 20th Century, Brussels does sound like a swimmers’ paradise, with long-distance swimming competitions in the Canal and lidos dotted around the city suburbs, but now there is only the Canal (without the long-distance swims) and various small ponds, none of which is suitable for swimming due to all the usual reasons, such as poor water quality and designated nature reserves.
Pool is Cool started in 2014, with demonstrations, public debates and creative acts of civil disobedience, ‘but we didn’t just want to be an activist group,’ Paul explains, which led the team to design FLOW – a prototype pool which first opened in 2021.
FLOW is a test case, which means the team are always making changes, such as the new water purification and long-awaited sauna, which have enabled FLOW to stay open during the winter season. ‘It was an immediate success,’ Paul says, recalling the first winter opening on New Year’s Eve in 2023. ‘We expected perhaps 30 or 40 people to show up, but instead, 160 people came to swim during a two-hour slot’.
Pool is Cool have now shown, as with cities all over the world, there is a strong and increasing popular demand for outdoor swimming in Brussels, and as the team continue to develop plans for a permanent pool to replace FLOW, they are also supporting other projects around the city, including proposals for a rooftop pool, a floating park in the Canal and a new swimming pond, complete with natural filtration system.
‘And when the next problem comes along,’ Paul explains, ‘whether it’s about design, technology, water quality and data, legislation, communications and activist approaches, whatever it might be, we can reach out to the Swimmable Cities network where there will almost certainly be someone who has already faced the same problem and knows exactly what we need to do’.
Find out more here.
Pool is Cool