Edu Pool

Degree Project 2022

Primary schools in Sweden offer swimming lessons for children as a preventive measure against drowning, and everyone is expected to be able to swim in year 6. Yet, drownings among children still is a concern being one of the leading causes of unintentional injury death. 38% of all children up to 17 years old can't swim as of today, and many are sure to be silent about it all the way until adulthood - due to shame, exclusion or fear of water.

Speaking with experts and teachers within school swimming, I learned that one of many reasons for such low swimming ability among children is due to a growing population, lack of smaller decent swimming halls and childrens´ reluctance to participate because of psychological fears. Classes are becoming larger and the lack of tools and swimming halls are not designed for this change. It can be tough for schools to make sure every class and child get enough swimming time and it is even harder to be able to consider children's individual abilities, fears, insecurities, and create a safe and less exposing learning environment - most notably for schools further away in the country and less financially well off.

The research’s findings revealed there is a need to consider the children's experiences of safety, religious differences, body insecurities, and feeling exposed in the swimming hall and pool environment, that's shared with the public.

How might we improve the experience of swimming lessons for large school classes in primary schools?

The project´s findings revealed that these could be improved with the help of designing tools or an environment which can help teachers to work in a more structured way to minimize distractions, get a good overview of the class of children and being able to teach water activities safely with consideration of a bigger variety of swimming abilities and insecurities, where swimming lessons are conducted.

The resulting design is called Edu Pool and is an educational proposed system for school swimming that creates a safe environment where lessons can be conducted in privacy and organized according to the variety of swimming abilities in a school class. Edu Pool is a new smaller swimming hall designed to be a closer and more welcoming learning environment than the big, noisy and often crowded public swimming halls built in the cities. Resulting in a closer and equal solution to swimming education for schools and residential areas.

A motorical controlled pool divider is designed to give more freedom in utilizing the space for safety purposes while doing activities in different groups simultaneously. It also minimizes distractions, noise and feeling being looked at. Products and the overall environment mood is to be as little intimidating, noisy, exposed and confusing as possible. The flow of movement in the room is to support the teacher's supervision as best as possible while children can feel less exposed to embarrassment and insecurities.

Linn Yue Thomessen

Bachelor's Programme in Industrial Design

In collaboration with:

Link to website for project collaborator In collaboration with:
Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

The teacher and class can gather in a comfortable and quiescent space without distractions or confusion on where to meet up

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

The shallow end of a swimming pool is a good place to handle fears and learn to swim for less water experienced children. Swimming involves breathing, kicking with your legs and stroking with your arms. These are less intimidating things you can practice one at a time in shallow water that´s close to stairs and grip friendly edges

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

As a shallow pool is needed for the least experienced kids there is a need for a deeper pool for more experienced kids - but without seperating them in an unfair way. Therefore we got a pool stational divider between the areas for safety reasons but also a connecting pathway for thos who can swim through

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Experienced kids have the possibility to try diving and practce swimming on the deep pool. This carries a lot of noise which can be minimized with walls and roof produced in the sustainable noice absorbing material Träullit

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Being a large class of 30 kids and 3 teachers there is a need to divide classes in different groups in different pool areas. This pool divider works like a curtain, minimizing noise and distractions while yet being discreet and completely walk through

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

3D view of Edu Pool without the pool divider

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Creating the mood out of keywords: inviting, bright, colorful, minimal, playful

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Components in the room: The placement of dressingroom, gathering place and products, the pool and the pool divider

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Screen layout makes it possible to avert distractions while different groups of swim activities are happening simultaneusly in the same room. It also works as a noise absorbing function, minimizing the bad acoustics which a tile room creates.

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Top view - roof and room

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

The movement of flow in Edu Pool helps children to move in less exposed areas and makes supervision easier for teachers to keep close distance to children on land and in water situations

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Brainstorming and co-creation

Illustration Image:Umeå Institute of Design

Design process