The recently reopened Municipal Baths of Strasbourg really must be addressed as ?Baths.? It would not seem right to call the complex just simply a swimming facility or an aquatic, wellness or community centre. It is all of these but  its grand architecture and interior design, both now elegantly restored by the Paris and Geneve-based Chatillon Architectes, demand that the historic Baths continue to be called Baths even today.

Built by the German city planner, painter and architect Fritz Beblo in 1905-1908, the swimming pools and thermal baths complex was considered one of his finest buildings anywhere. Beblo was at the time the head of the city?s building department and a key figure in the development of the city?s Neustadt (new town) area during the German Empire (1870-1918).
Bebo?s progressive team took a bold, artistic and holistic approach, designing and controlling absolutely everything from building materials to the door handles. And although the building?s purpose was functional ? winter swimming and hygiene were the city?s goals at the time ? many of the details were purely decorative. The material selection was eclectic and the style is mixed. There are references to Jugendstil but also to Baroque, Renaissance and even Japanese styles.

Jugendstil was the German counterpart of Art Nouveau. The followers of the movement rebelled against the industrial age of machinery and the tall, boxy and featureless buildings of the era by infusing their art, design and archi...