For two summer seasons, they were the turquoise-blue eye-catchers at Aachen's Hangeweiher outdoor pool: the 16 special containers that made it possible to operate the pool during the extensive renovation phase. After the last swimming fans had climbed out of the pools in mid-September, further construction teams arrived on Monday (October 13) to remove the single-storey temporary buildings. With the help of a large crane, the containers containing the changing rooms, showers, toilets, offices and staff rooms were lifted onto trucks. Ten modules were then transported directly to new locations: to three Aachen sports grounds as changing rooms and to the municipal forestry office as an interim office and changing room solution.

The city of Aachen invested around 1.7 million euros in the container solution for the outdoor pool - including the paving and earthworks required around it, laying the connections and other accompanying measures and planning. Hundreds of thousands of bathers were thus able to use Aachen's only outdoor pool in the past two summers of 2024 and 2025 despite the extensive renovation work on the Hangeweiher - an express wish of the city's society and politicians. With the purchase at the time, the administration pursued a sustainable strategy from the outset, as Petra Pade, project manager from the city's facility management department, and Bernd Elbert, deputy head of the sports department, explain.

"The city of Aachen has purchased the containers so that they can be used for further construction projects or other purposes in the future," says Pade. In addition to the ten containers that will continue to be used directly, the remaining shower and toilet containers as well as a barrier-free container will be temporarily stored by the administration until their next use. "The lockers purchased for the interim outdoor pool buildings will be used in refugee accommodation in future," explains Pade. This will in turn be coordinated by the Housing, Social Affairs and Integration department.

In future, the changing room containers will be located at three sports grounds: in Lichtenbusch, Kornelimünster and Verlautenheide. Bernd Elbert from the sports department explains: "We deliberately chose these three locations, as many teams, including numerous girls' and women's teams, play there and the local changing buildings only have very few changing rooms. This means that the time-consuming organization of training and match operations can be relieved considerably."

Meanwhile, the renovation work at the Hangeweiher outdoor pool is progressing rapidly. With the dismantling of the interim buildings, the paved areas and earthworks will also be removed in October and November. In future, this area will once again be available to all sun-seeking outdoor pool guests as a sunbathing lawn. Construction of the new entrance area will then continue, including the installation of the solar roof and the fresh air changing rooms. Everything is currently going according to plan, so those responsible are currently assuming that everything will be ready for the start of the 2026 outdoor pool season on May 1 and Aachen can look forward to a completely renovated outdoor pool.

The city is investing around 6.8 million euros in the entire new complex - a design by Kaiser Schweitzer Architekten from Aachen. The city has secured 1.48 million euros for the new building from the federal program "Renovation of municipal facilities in the areas of sport, youth and culture". In the past few years, the technology and pools of the outdoor pool have already been renovated in two stages. The new building is the third and final renovation phase.