AQUABOX Mobiles Hallenbad – Mobile Indoor Swimming Pool
Wherever you need it
In Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen, a temporary swimming pool made of prefabricated timber modules is being used to bridge the gap whilst the local indoor swimming pool is being rebuilt. As a reversible modular system, it can be dismantled in an environmentally friendly manner once the new facility is complete and relocated to another site in need of refurbishment for further use.
Not far from their familiar local swimming pool, families, schoolchildren and swimmers at Kelterplatz in Zuffenhausen now find themselves facing a striking, two-storey timber building. It is the result of a tender process in which the municipal body ›Stuttgarter Bäder‹ sought a temporary solution for the demolition and reconstruction phase of the existing indoor swimming pool, which dates from the 1970s.
To ensure that swimming lessons, in particular, do not have to be cancelled whilst the necessary replacement building is being constructed, an interdisciplinary team of planners and timber construction companies developed a modular indoor swimming pool that can be erected within a few weeks: Wood-framed structural elements are almost entirely prefabricated in a factory, regardless of weather conditions, and delivered to the site fully equipped and furnished, which significantly reduces construction time and waste. The pre-installed stainless steel pool elements also only need to be welded together during assembly.
Heat pumps, ventilation with high heat recovery and rooftop solar panels reduce the energy requirements of the mobile indoor swimming pool and make its operation significantly more environmentally friendly than that of conventional indoor swimming pools. Assembled and bolted together on site, the 46 timber modules form a distinctive cube, whose colourful entrance wall will guide visitors to the reception area on the ground floor. Upstairs, bathers can simultaneously swim laps undisturbed in the 25-metre pool or splash about in the shallow water in the adjustable-floor area, whilst enjoying the view of the treetops. Once the adjacent new swimming pool building is completed, the mobile pool will move on to the next indoor swimming pool construction sites in Stuttgart. In this way, the pilot project demonstrates a sustainable approach to flexible and circularly usable temporary structures.
Facts and Figures
| Location | Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen |
| Size | 25-metre pool with 5 lanes, water surface area 312.5 m² |
| Project start | IBA’27 project since 2026 |
| + | Temporary indoor swimming pool for public use, as well as for schools and clubs |
| Timeline | 2025 Included in IBA’27 Network 2024 Competitive tendering process: Pool out of the Box GmbH, Heidenheim (main contractor) with 4a Architekten, Stuttgart (design) and Blumer Lehmann, Gossau/Switzerland (modular construction), as well as various specialist designers 2026 Inclusion as an IBA’27 project 2026 Planned completion |
| Project initiator | The City of Stuttgart (Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart) and the Stuttgart Public Baths Authority (Eigenbetrieb Stuttgarter Bäder) |
Contact
Project initiator
POOL out of the BOX GmbH
Joachim Maier
Alte Ulmer Straße 2
89522 Heidenheim an der Brenz
jm@pootb.de
4a Architekten GmbH
Petra Steiner / Ernst Ulrich Tillmanns
Hallstraße 25
70376 Stuttgart
p.steiner@4a-architekten.de / e.u.tillmanns@4a-architekten.de
