The Swim Club

The Swim Club in Štěpánská Arcade excellently combines dance, music, good food, and functionalist architecture. The apartment buildings at both ends of the arcade contain all the essentials of the so-called emotional functionalism, which can be recognized by the atypical use of materials, such as the polished granite cladding or the combination of chrome steel and wooden window frames. The architects Barbara Rozsypalová and Lenka Ciglerová from the MIAOW studio utilized preserved details of the original structure in 2018 when they were preparing a complete renovation of the former carpet store on the ground floor into the Swim music club. The result is an aesthetically clean two-story space that is free from excessive advertisements and builds upon its functionalist past. A dance floor stylized as a swimming pool, complete with a diving board as a DJ booth, was created in the former boiler room, although such a feature never actually existed in the building’s background.