Aidu Water Sports Centre

In short: a public water sports centre on a lake in Ida-Viru County, Estonia, developed from 2015 to 2022 and a nominee for Wooden Building of the Year.

Aidu Water Sports Centre occupies the edge of a lake, in an open, reshaped landscape of low embankments. This is a public facility, not a home. A low, flat-roofed block clad in warm vertical timber holds the main accommodation, and a two-storey glazed volume cantilevers over the water on slender columns, its green-tinted corner windows opening views along the shoreline. Below the timber upper walls, dark near-black boarding wraps the base.

Inside, a sauna is lined throughout in pale timber, benches, walls and ceiling alike, set around a cylindrical stone heater, with full-height glazing onto the snow-covered lakeside terrace. In overcast winter light the massing is plain: a solid timber base tied to the ground, and a lighter glazed room reaching out over the water.

What makes it work

• A clear split: heavy timber accommodation on the ground, a light glazed watch room over the water.
• Timber used at a public scale without losing warmth, from the cladding down to the sauna benches.
• A seven-year public project carried through to a nomination for Wooden Building of the Year.

Water sports centre facts

• Location: Aidu, Ida-Viru County, Estonia
• Type: public water sports centre
• Years: 2015 to 2022
• Client: SA Aidu Veespordikeskus
• Architecture: Pluss Arhitektid, Indrek Allmann and Gunnar Kurusk, with Jaan Jagomägi, Tanno Tammesson, Kaspar Krass, Grete Liis Nagelmann and Merli Mirki
• Photography: Lisanna Remmelkoor
• Recognition: nominee, Wooden Building of the Year

A public building in timber?

A water sports centre asks more of its structure than most houses do, and timber answered here. See how we build with solid timber, or talk to us about a public project.