La Piscine, Art and Industry Museum in Roubaix, France.
La Piscine is an art museum in Roubaix, France, housed in a former swimming pool from the late 1920s. The building follows the geometric clarity of Art Deco with tall glass ceilings and a central water basin that surrounds the gallery areas and mirrors sculptures at its edges.
Albert Baert designed the swimming pool between 1927 and 1932 as a public bathhouse for textile factory workers. After closing in 1985, Jean-Paul Philippon transformed the building into a museum that opened its doors in 2001, connecting the original structure with new exhibition rooms.
The name La Piscine reminds visitors of the original use and gives the museum its special character. Glass windows along the sides create the impression of walking through a greenhouse, while the water between the artworks appears as a living part of the exhibition and fills the rooms with changing light.
The museum opens Tuesday to Thursday from 11 to 18, Friday until 20, and weekends from 13. Visitors can walk around the basin and explore galleries in the former changing rooms and added wing, with flat floors and wide passages making movement easy.
The basin stays filled with water and creates reflections of the sculptures and glass ceiling. On some days, visitors toss coins into the water, carrying an old swimming pool habit into the museum world and creating an unexpected link between the two uses.
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