Lido

1980-1986
Ascona, TI

The Lido in Ascona is a highly conceptual construction: two walls which separates the urban milieu and the beach, with 7 circular opens each, 3.12m in diameter, 7 passages toward the public space in front of the lake.
Covered with silico-limestone bricks, these two walls enclose dressing rooms, showers and bathrooms. They support a large, horizontal beam in reinforced concrete.

The technique of precompression allowed to span the 27m between the two pilasters and to extend the two slabs outward for a length of 15m. The structure is perfectly symmetrical.
This construction has no base socle, because it is conceived as a “passage”, a filter between the city and the lake. In winter, the 7 doors are closed and the “abandoned” parallelepiped imposes rationality on the landscape.