The $29 million Les Bains des Docks aquatic center, reimagines the concept of a public pool. The overall design was inspired by the Roman thermal baths as people can go to congregate in most of the various pools year round. Located in Le Havre, France, it is the brain child of designer Jean Nouvel. On the exterior, the boxy precast-concrete shell, painted gun-metal gray, echoes the scale and simple massing of surrounding warehouses. Only the playful composition of rectangular apertures hints at an interior transcending the ordinary or functional.
