Valhalla Swimming Hall, Gothenburg, SWEDEN
Designed in 1948 by the Swedish architect Nils Olsson, the Valhalla Swimming Hall in Gothenburg was inaugurated in 1956. Since then, it has been one of the largest indoor swimming facilities in Scandinavia. Attracting nearly half a million visitors every year, the Valhalla Swimming Hall is a popular meeting place in the second-largest city of Sweden for swimming, exercise and wellness.
The building consists of five elements, which reduce the impact of the large volume. No façade of the building is designed as a rear elevation, and all of them are covered with yellow bricks, which allude to the industrial architecture in the neighbouring Gårda area. Welded steel beams support the roof, clad in copper, while floor surfaces are covered with marble and tiles. The swimming hall’s end walls are covered in a 700m² modernist mosaic pattern of outstanding artistic quality designed by the Swedish artist Nils Wedel. The Roman baths in the basement level are decorated by the Finnish ceramist Taisto Kaasinen, from the famous Arabia ceramics company in Helsinki. The swimming hall receives light through rows of windows facing South. Its architectural values won a bronze medal at the Olympics 1948.
The building has retained its authentic appearance and its original materials, such as marble, clinker and wood, throughout the years.
The Valhalla Swimming Hall has been recognised as a culturally and historically valuable building in the city’s preservation programme, which means that its preservation is considered of public interest.
However, the Valhalla Swimming Hall is threatened with demolition due to the Municipality of Gothenburg’s plans to build a new, larger sports and entertainment arenas in the city’s so-called “event area”.
Europa Nostra Sweden, supported by other NGOs, nominated the Valhalla Swimming Hall to 7 Most Endangered Programme 2025, with the aim of encouraging the Municipality of Gothenburg to take into account the multiple values of the building and to halt its plans to build a new sports and entertainment complex.
In line with the principles of the New European Bauhaus – an initiative launched by the European Commission in 2021 that fosters sustainable solutions for transforming the built environment and lifestyles under the green transition – the renovation of the original swimming hall would undoubtedly be less expensive and more eco-friendly than its demolition and the construction of a new complex.
The Advisory Panel of the 7 Most Endangered Programme emphasised: “The Valhalla Swimming Hall stands for both a significant expression of the 1950s’ pioneering architecture and artistic decoration, and a breakthrough for a new public health responsibility, a symbol of changing attitudes toward public swimming. It is also an example for the rest of Europe in its exquisite design, accessibility and openness. For architectural, cultural, social, economic, and environmental reasons, the Valhalla Swimming Hall should be renovated for the benefit of both present and future generations.”