Valhalla Swimming Hall, Indoor swimming facility in Gothenburg, Sweden
Valhalla Swimming Hall is an indoor pool building between Mölndalsån and Scandinavium in the Heden district. Its main hall measures 43.5 m long, 39 m wide and 14 m high, with a pool depth varying from 0.9 to 4.8 m and a stepped diving tower with platforms at 5, 7.5 and 10 m. Both gable walls are covered with about 700 m² of non-figurative glass mosaic by Nils Wedel.
Valhalla Swimming Hall was designed by Nils Olsson, whose 1948 competition entry "3 ronder" won a bronze medal in the art competitions at the 1948 London Olympics. After Olsson died in 1951, Gustaf Samuelsson completed the building, which opened on 6 December 1956. The first spadeful of earth was turned on 9 February 1953 on the site of the former Burgårdskolonin allotment garden.
The hall's name comes from Walhalla idrottsplats, a sports ground that stood nearby from 1908 to 1921; the board of Renströmska baden chose the name on 15 March 1956. The two gable walls of the pool room carry non-figurative glass mosaics by Nils Wedel, about 700 square metres in all.
The hall sits between Mölndalsån and Scandinavium on Heden in central Gothenburg, in block 34 Topasen. The pool room is 43.5 m long, with a hydraulic bridge that divides the basin into a 25 m pool; depths run from 0.9 m in the shallow part to 4.8 m in the deep part. The diving tower has springboards at 5, 7.5 and 10 m and boards at 1 and 3 m.
The pool hall's acoustics were handled with a ceiling of 3/4 x 3-inch fine-sawn boards laid 1 cm apart over a 25 mm stone wool mat in paper casing. The glass roof, loudspeakers and fluorescent tubes were serviced from a hanging trolley running under the roof lantern.
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