Freising offers its citizens and visitors a new and perennial adventure and combination pool of the highest quality in Lerchenfeld, the ‚fresch‘. On site at the Rabenweg, where the former pool was located, a successful combination of new and existing material has been created, by renovating and rebuilding according to today’s demands. And this at a time in which many communities around Germany are closing their pools. The architecture competition that was advertised by the municipal works in Freising, was won by Venneberg & Zech, together with the landscape architects from Gruenplan, both from Hanover, who submitted an entry that pursued the idea of a ‚white ship, anchored in Lerchenfeld‘. There are three new building parts that are home to the indoor pool, the restaurant, a multi-storey car park, and a sauna area. There are generous sitting and lying opportunites for visitors all over the site: next to the sunbathing lawn there are countless patios, platforms and stands, all over the grounds. All of these surfaces are made of durable and slipresistant wood composite material. On a total of 950 square metres the patio deck ‚Compact massive‘ in grey from Bavarian wood composite specialist NATURinFORM was laid. Additionally, there are 328 metres of handrails, with ‚Strong‘ as a pleasing cover, to provide more safety around the premises.
Water park Freising
Patio decks
Compact in grey
Type of construction
Patios, platforms, stands, hand rail
Construction year
2017-2018
Location
Combined swimming pool fresch, Rabenweg 20, 8534 Freising (Bavaria)
‚Fresch‘ offers unlimited bathing fun on more than one thousand square metres of water surface. Visitors can spend time in one of the four indoor pools, or in one of the four outdoor pools. The leisure pool is made up of three areas: The 25-metre-long pool with four lanes invites relaxed swimmers. The second area– connected to the swimmers‘ pool by a canal – is for wild paddlers and for those wanting to slide down the wide slide. The playground next to the toddlers‘ pool is ideal for climbing and hanging out. Older children can climb the frames, smaller ones can play at the water pumps or build sandcastles. At the back of the outdoor pool there are beach volleyball sites with fine sand. In the indoor pool there is a sports pool, a teaching pool, as well as a leisure and a toddler pool. These are open to visitors all year round. The separately accessible sauna area offers several saunas, a cold and warm water pool and relaxation areas. In the sauna garden there are a Kelo sauna, a ‚cave‘ sauna and a swimming pond with an adjoining relaxation house for sauna guests. In the outdoor pool the 50 metre competition and diving pool, as well as large parts of the sunbathing lawn were retained. A new leisure and a new toddler pool with a playing area were built, as well as sanitary facilities. In the north-east, new, wide-spread sunbathing areas were created. A new restaurant with approximately 50 seats and a patio can be used independently without going to the pool. The design concept for the outdoor areas was devised by GruenPlan Landscape. The GruenPlan landscape architects BDLA from Hanover, led by Graduate Engineer Jens Krannich, were responsible for the design of the exterior. A large part of which was the relaxation and lounge areas outdoors. The people running the business chose Naturinform’s ‚Compact massive‘ patio decks in grey as a surface for the patios, the bordering pool areas, as well as in the main entrance area, as it fits in perfectly with the colour design – both with the architecture, as well as the exterior design. Additionally, hand rails were coated with a total of 328 running metres of Naturinform’s ‚Strong‘.
Slip-resistant surfaces prevent accidents on wet floors
Building owner and architects chose ‚Compact‘, a non-slip surface that provides a safe grip even when it is damp and wet. Naturinform’s massive decks have proven their worth on countless patios around swimming pools. You can use them with one of two sides, either a finely striated, or block strip side, both of which are brushed to provide more grip and slip resistance. The finely striated surface offers the highest slip resistance, R12, according to DIN 51130, and Class C according to DIN 51097, as tested by TÜV Rheinland. Meaning ‚Compact‘ is predestined for areas around baths and pools. The finely grained decks are also unimpressed by spray water and guarantee a high level of slip resistance due to their technical enhancement, which is especially important in pool areas. In contrast to wood, wood composite materials do not splinter, thereby delivering a further argument for choosing this barefootfriendly material. With lengths of up to 13 metres, a thickness of 21 millimetres and the two possible surfaces, they can be used versatilely.
Processing the platform required talented craftspeople
The company Schmees & Luehn Wood and Steel Construction from Lower Saxonian Fresenburg were awarded the contract to lay the wood composite material. Founded in 1900, Schmees & Luehn today is one of the leading German companies in the field of wood and steel construction. 76 employees from the most diverse expert areas realise engineered buildings throughout Europe. ‚With a few breaks, our team of three people worked a total of 16 months on site from the moment we were awarded the contract until final acceptance on site,‘ reports Markus Luehn, responsible for production and head of construction in the company. The professionals at Schmees & Luehn laid not only the surfaces for walking on, barefoot areas and sunbathing decks with the appropriate composite material; the seating areas around the diving platform proved especially challenging and required talented craftsmanship. ‚This is where we had to put in far more effort and thought creating the underlying construction than with level patio surfaces,‘ says Luehn. He very much appreciates the technical characteristics of the material, especially in areas exposed to a lot of water, in which there is also a lot of chlorine. Furthermore, he evaluates the processing attributes positively, as they are very similar to wood.
Massive decks: Slip-resistant, weatherproof and barefoot friendly
Naturinform specialises in intelligent solutions for outdoor surfaces and profiles. Wood composite materials are produced on site in Upper Franconian Redwitz an der Rodach: a material that combines the optical characteristics of traditional construction timber with the durability of a technical polymer. During production the wood fibres are combined in such a way with an environmentally-friendly, thermoplastic polymer, that covers each individual fibre like a protective coating. As the polymer itself is completely water-repellant, it is not possible for water to penetrate the finished deck – but it retains the optical and thermic characteristics of wood. A large advantage with surfaces surrounding damp and wet areas: neither does the material swell and rot prematurely, nor does it splinter or get slippery.
Climate-neutral, sustainable production
Climate protection and resource protection are very important for Naturinform. In wood composite production they only use wooden fibres from domestic and sustainable forestry (PEFC-certified wood suppliers), as certified as climate neutral since November by the TÜV NORD. No additional trees are felled, as the wood fibres are a byproduct of the woodprocessing industry. This makes the material an extremely environmentally- and climate friendly product that is, in addition, recyclable by 100 %. After utilisation, the decks are taken back by the company if possible and fed back into the production process.
Download: Press release
Product information: compact