Mohenjo-Daro is the swimming equivalent of Mecca: any swimming devotee should visit it at least once in their lifetime. The problem is that it is discouragingly far away. At 8,564.5 kilometers or four full days of driving from the Puerta del Sol. Furthermore, anyone traveling expecting to find a stunning blue rectangle will be disappointed. The ruins of The Great Bath (12 x 7 and 2.40 meters deep) are located on a dusty hill. One must really use their imagination to picture that there, in one of the largest settlements of the Indus Valley Civilization (2500-1800 BC), in the current Pakistani province of Sindh, man discovered aquatic happiness.
"Whoever owns a pool also holds the key to the joy of other people," wrote journalist Anabel Vázquez in her essay-treatise Piscinosofía (Libros del KO, 2023), where she dedicated a chapter to this ancient installation built with bricks. It is unknown if it had a religious or erotic-festive function. Nor is it known how its users managed to splash around without drowning. By the way, Mohenjo-Daro means mound of the dead in Urdu.
The Valladolid region of Montes Torozos is much more accessible than the Indus Valley. And in its ochre and golden cereal landscape, one can indeed enjoy a body of water that, in its fifth summer since opening, has become iconic. Not only for the region and its inhabitants, but even for the Venice Biennale of Architecture.
All this used to be countryside; today it is the Castromonte pool.
Two registered inhabitants in the smallest town in Spain: "In summer, we might gather 15 people and there is a bit of a commotion"
The DJ of empty Spain: "The elderly ask for traditional Spanish music and the young ones, reggaeton"
Its backstory has a touch of miracle in the wasteland. To begin with, due to the peculiar socio-economic conditions of the town. In Castromonte and its two hamlets, there are 326 inhabitants (INE, 2024) and 80 wind turbines. The low profitability of agriculture and the strong investment from wind multinational companies explain why today the town is surrounded by giant blades. The taxes on the windmills, in turn, allow the municipality to implement services and infrastructures typical of any medium-sized city. The pool is one of the spaces financed with the profits from the "wind gold", as architect Óscar Miguel Ares calls it. Its construction between 2020 and 2021 cost 450,000 euros.
"Areas like these are becoming the backyard of cities. Wind and photovoltaic parks leave huge profits that, when managed intelligently by municipalities, are reinvested in citizens in the form of facilities," notes in the heart of the energy hub of La Mudarra. The mayor Heliodoro de la Iglesia (PP) turned to the designer, backed by his studio's work, when he decided that it was enough for his neighbors to have to take the car when they wanted to take a dip during the hottest months of the year. "It is a reasoned investment, sustainable over time, and in line with the municipality's needs," explains the mayor over the phone. "After addressing other priorities - such as fixing streets and sewerage, for example - it was decided to build it upon seeing that neighboring towns did have their own."
Admiring La Isla in the Manzanares by Gutiérrez Soto and the Picornell in Barcelona, Ares had not designed any pool until he received the commission. But he was clear that his should be a reflection of local idiosyncrasy and the dialogue between the traditional and the disruptive. On one hand, the uncut stone walls evoke the typical walls of the area. "The project aimed to activate people's memory, and this material represents the sense of belonging," notes its promoter on-site. On the other hand, the prefabricated beam roof brings to mind the wind turbines, now inseparable from the Castromonte skyline.
"The whole was built from the rubble stones of the original plot fence. We turned to master stonemasons from the region who were on the verge of disappearing," adds Ares. "For the concrete beams, aggregates from the area were used, whose texture and color resemble those of the masonry walls." The project seeks to synthesize this duality - vernacular and industrialized, heavy and weightless - "poetically."
"To me, since I saw it for the first time just a few weeks ago, it seemed beautiful. It has several distinct spaces for organizing events, a fantastic location that allows walking here... It gave me the impression of being in front of a Bauhaus design made with local materials," describes it with a keen eye Radek Dabrowski, the new manager of the pool bar.
The result has been attracting attention from Spanish construction magazines and websites dedicated to author construction for four years. However, what really put it on the map was the European Union Mies van der Rohe Contemporary Architecture Award. The building was among the 40 finalists in last year's edition thanks to its elegant design, its commitment to circular economy, and its contribution to the fight against depopulation. Of course, it was the only pool among the candidates.
We mentioned earlier that the backstory of the Castromonte pool has something miraculous about it. The main miracle it has brought about has to do with demographics and even with morale. "In the village, they say I have managed to bring back their grandchildren. In summer, more children come thanks to the pool," points out an architect who claims to have read and reread La España vacía by Sergio del Molino. "It has made it possible for many residents who did not come at this time to return and now practically stay all vacation. It is an important leisure incentive," confirms De la Iglesia. Even the census recorded an increase (17 inhabitants) between 2021 and 2023. "The pool has had a small impact, but the truth is that Castromonte currently is not losing population."
"The first year there was overbooking because people came from outside [the maximum capacity is 350 people]. I remember lines outside waiting for the swimmers to leave so we could get in," Ares adds. And he clarifies: "This is called a pool because it legally has to be called something... In reality, it's a space for gatherings. The films from the Lazos decentralized film festival are screened here, and popular races are started here... In the studio, we've always been clear that we didn't want to create architecture-spectacle, but rather architecture for the people... We work in small municipalities and we know that a building has to accommodate as much as possible. A library or a swimming pool are just that in a city, but in a town, they have to be much more. If there's a place where architecture serves as a social catalyst and has the capacity to reverse depopulation in some way, it's here. We're talking about a socially depressed area, but not an economically depressed one."
In Piscinosofía, its author recalls: "In Western society, it's easy to have a memory linked to a pool. There are many, they soak us, they're everywhere. One of them speaks to us all, even those people who say they prefer the sea, that wild hurricane." Let's see if it's true.
Noon is approaching, and María José heads for the ladder to descend into the water. The robotic pool cleaner has been working until just a few minutes before. The multicolored synthetic fiber lounge chairs are waiting in a corner. "It's wonderful. The water is very good, and you can already see the grass: impeccable. And then there's the beauty of the structure," this neighbor shares.
"What was summer like without a pool?"
"Very different, because this gives you life. Ibizan parties have even been held here. If we didn't have one, we'd be stuck indoors."
"Would anything be improved?"
"Nothing." It's perfect.
There are those who criticize the Castromonte pool for various reasons. One: that the area, close to grassy areas, is a paradise for flies. Two: that the gravel floor crumbles easily. And three: that its 1.5-meter-deep pool only allows for soaking the shins; let alone the secondary pool, which is 30 centimeters deep, a relief, if anything, for ankles. "We couldn't build an Olympic-sized pool here either," argues the project manager. "They're designed for recreational use. Keep in mind that there are a lot of elderly people here, and we couldn't make it too deep because of the problems that could cause."
It's well known that, in addition to a national team coach, everyone in Spain has an architect inside them.
Ana, who was born in Santo Domingo and has lived in Castromonte for more than 20 years, walks by with little Alessandro in her arms. He's the only child we see all morning. "He loves the pool, I'm taking him to the camp right now," says his mother. Tere, 80, has been attending the aquagym class for five years. "It forces me to go out, even though I'm too lazy to do it in this heat," she says at the door of her house. "I've only learned to swim a little... I had the chance to do it when I went to Galicia, but the water was very cold and it was hard to back out..." Tere is nicknamed The Frog. There's probably no family in the village more enchanted with the pool than hers: her son Ángel is the lifeguard and her son Jose is the ticket seller. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, she and her senior group put on their swimming caps and grab their donuts to exercise and dance Zumba while soaking. "Every day there are images reminiscent of any Fellini film," notes Radek, who manages two other bars in Valladolid, where he moved from Torun (Poland), the birthplace of Copernicus.
Ares is finalizing the model that he will take to the Pisa Biennial together with the Castromonte Food House—a kitchen-restaurant designed to deliver dishes, especially to the town's seniors—and to the Town Hall in neighboring Valverde de Campos, for which he won the 2022-2023 Castilla y León Architecture Award.
"How did we experience the Van der Rohe nomination? We didn't expect it," he admits. "First, because it's a European award. And second, because this is a project for a town with very few inhabitants... In the end, it was a message of encouragement for everyone."
He concludes: "Look, I'm not a sociologist, but it's clear that we're at a crossroads. Sociability has changed, and today it's on social media and elsewhere. A swimming pool is a theater for life. But there are many people who prefer to binge-watch series on the weekend than put on a swimsuit, go to the pool, and talk to someone."