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Canoe Course (Eiskanal)
For the 1972 Olympic Games, the historic ice canal was tranformed into the world's first artificial white-water canoe course. Thus, modern sport is also part of the centuries-long continuity of Augsburg's water system. The course is still used today for international competitions.
Building history and description
- artificial canoe racing course with start and finish building, press and organization building, accommodation building (today Bundesleistungszentrum)
- located between Hauptstadtbach and Lech
- Augsburger, Spickel-Herrenbach; Am Eiskanal
- direct proximity to the high drain and historic drinking waterworks at the high drain
- Erection 1970-1972 for the 1972 Summer Olympics
- Architects Reinhard Brockel and Erich Müller, landscape architects Gottfried and Anton Hansjakob
- Canoe racing course as the backbone of the entire system and subordination of all other functional structures under this motif
- convertible grid structures, wings assembled as an atrium-like group
- site-dominating press tower, large-scale architectures frame the concrete channel of the canoe line
- The staircase and terrace system ensures the harmonious integration of the building mass into the powerfully moving relief of the terrain surfaces
- Combination with wooden cladding and wooden roof shingles
- large glazing
- Exposed concrete
- special place of an accompanying river landscape and a natural environment
- additional shaping force of the material-oriented concrete as art material
- Start building and target building as the beginning and end of the entire complex, decreasing monumentality of the buildings towards the edges
Canoe racing course at the Ice Canal
Canoe racing course at the Ice Canal
Near-natural stands at the canoe racing course
Canoe racing course at the Ice Canal
© Michael Neumann / Stadt Augsburg
© Michael Neumann / Stadt Augsburg
© Michael Neumann / Stadt Augsburg
© Michael Neumann / Stadt Augsburg
© Michael Neumann / Stadt Augsburg
Use and purpose
- Built for the 1972 Summer Olympics, then the world's first artificial canoe racing course
- Designed for further use at construction
- An essential design principle was the connection to the hitherto historically grown, old city stream was integrated into the canoe route
- Stair steps like a height layer model, the choice of materials taken from nature, thereby artificially developing the natural Lechauen landscape
- Canoe racing course at the Ice canal as an expression of Augsburg's modern urban development in the second half of the 20th century, so-called "mother of all artificial canoe routes" and symbol of Augsburg's status as a city of sport, innovative and modern hydraulic engineering
- Ice canal as a former component of the drinking waterworks at the high drain
Authenticity and unique features
- Original state preserved and protected, yet actively used sports facility, currently list extension of the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Historic Buildings of the 1960s and 1970s
- testifies to the permanent further development and rededication of individual components of the Augsburg water management system into a sports venue, including a clubhouse, recreational area and gastronomy
- Use of innovative, state-of-the-art technology and orientation to currents in international architecture and landscape design
