There was great euphoria when the city council decided eight years ago to build a new indoor swimming pool in Dachau. But nobody could have guessed how complex the project was going to be: the construction costs skyrocketed, there were construction defects and the opening date of the new pool was pushed back further and further. Stadtwerke Dachau have now decided to give notice to the architect of the new indoor pool building, Wolfgang Gollwitzer from Studio Gollwitzer Architekten GmbH (studioGA) – after seven years of construction and planning. On Tuesday, Stadtwerke explained in a press release: “The background to the terminations are different views regarding planning and construction defects and the associated disputes regarding the architect’s remuneration.”
The construction site for the new indoor pool is currently standing still, says Mayor Florian Hartmann (SPD). He does not want to comment on the construction and planning deficiencies that the architect Gollwitzer was responsible for. The dispute would probably have to be clarified legally and: “I don’t want to worsen our position in court,” says Mayor Hartmann.
“I’m still ready for an agreement.”
The Munich architect Wolfgang Gollwitzer was also dissatisfied with the cooperation. On the phone he says: “There were differences of opinion about the flow of payments and the types of execution”, i.e. how the indoor pool should be built. He is also holding back on specific allegations. Various problems have arisen at the construction site since last October. In February there was an attempt to reach an agreement with the city, but it failed. That’s why Gollwitzer gave notice to Stadtwerke at the end of July: “It’s a shame because it’s an incredibly beautiful project,” he says. Now followed the counter notice by the public utility company. Nevertheless, Gollwitzer emphasizes: “I am still ready for an agreement, even if the mayor contributes something to it.”
Meanwhile, the opening of the new bath is in the distance. The ground-breaking ceremony took place around three years ago. In November 2017, it was still assumed that the first swimmers would be able to swim laps in it in the next two years. But then problems with the curved wooden supporting structure delayed the construction. In 2020 it also became known that water was penetrating the technical room of the new building. Whoever entered the basement of the building shell saw large pools of water in some corners and heard construction managers talking about groundwater penetrating. After the start of construction, the costs also exploded: the architects originally estimated the costs of 16.5 million euros gross could no longer be met, the municipal utilities write: “The current cost forecast is around 23.2 million euros.”
The doors of the new Dachau indoor pool will probably remain closed for a long time.
(Photo: Niels P. Jørgensen)
The euphoria that prevailed when the foundation stone was laid for the new indoor pool has long been clouded: Mayor Florian Hartmann, architect Wolfgang Gollwitzer and Robert Haimerl from the Dachau municipal works.
(Photo: Toni Heigl)
Among other things, there was a delay in the construction of the indoor pool due to the complex wooden supporting structure.
(Photo: Niels P. Jørgensen)
If you ask city councilors from different factions, the conflict with the architect has been apparent for a long time. Jürgen Seidl (FDP) says: “For me, the termination does not come as a surprise”. It has been shown for “some time” that the cooperation does not work, neither the communication between the architect and the public utility nor between the architect and the craftsmen. In addition, the list of construction defects has continued to increase: “The municipal utilities should have separated from the planner much earlier” – at the same time it is probably not that easy because compensation claims have already arisen, says Seidl. Architect Gollwitzer explains: “The construction defects are not caused by the architect, but by the construction companies”, but as an architect he has to point out that the defects will be eliminated.
“That should be a lesson for us for future construction projects.”
Seidl, on the other hand, is convinced that the new indoor pool “will cost us some time, trouble and up to 30 million euros”. Right from the start, he saw the complex construction of the bath as the main problem, similar to his parliamentary colleague Peter Gampenrieder (ÜB). His faction had advocated planning the bathroom as a functional building in the form of a “concrete shoe box”. Instead, you now have an “artistically valuable building” in a Y-shape, “but everything is custom-made,” says Gampenrieder. “You probably underestimated that.”
With regard to the architecture of the indoor swimming pool, they “did not opt for the simplest approach,” admits the CSU parliamentary group leader, Florian Schiller: “That should be a lesson for us for future construction projects that you don’t just go for colorful pictures, but also look what can be implemented in a timely manner.” At the same time, however, he also criticizes the architect Gollwitzer: “A project like this needs on-site construction management,” says Schiller, who, in his opinion, did not exist. Architect Gollwitzer does not want to take a position on this.
For Richard Seidl (Greens), the architect’s termination has already become apparent, and the disputes have already been discussed several times in non-public meetings. In a way, Seidl is even happy that “the situation has now escalated”. Because “it has been known for a long time that the construction site is not going well”: Due to the pandemic, there were material bottlenecks and staff shortages, among other things, unreliable companies were employed there, he criticizes.
To name a new opening date is “completely dubious,” says the mayor
For OB Hartmann says to the allegations of his colleagues: “In hindsight, everyone is an expert and very clever.” In the past, there had been proposals in the works committee to build the indoor pool in the form of a box, but ultimately “the committee decided on a pool as it was built now”. Working with Gollwitzer is no longer an option for him. A new planning team for the indoor pool is currently being sought, and the first architects’ offices have already applied. They will soon be presented to the Works Committee. “We want to bag it in October,” says Hartmann.
Regarding the construction progress, he explains that the swimming pools in the new indoor pool have already been installed and partition walls have been installed, and the connection between the skylight and the facade was recently closed. Among other things, there is still tiling work to be done, fittings still have to be fixed, the furnishings, such as the kitchen and cupboards, and the slide are still missing. To give an opening date for the new pool today is “completely dubious,” says Hartmann – also because of the delivery problems with the building materials.