Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Aqua Foro caps an existing four level parking garage in Northern Liberties with a new elevated recreation and wellness landscape that serves the adjacent Piazza Alta mixed use development. The project is an unexpected and ethereal amenity garden that promotes healthy urban living and maximizes opportunities for outdoor activity and connection to the natural environment.
Aqua Foro by DIGSAU, won an 2025 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum: Museum of Architecture and Design.
A celebration of water and wellness, Aqua Foro evokes the visceral and mysterious qualities of an ancient ruin using resolutely contemporary forms. Uncommonly slender pavilion structures provide shelter from the sun and rain. Their smooth white surfaces are animated by the dynamic and colorful sparkle of reflected water. Unconventional transitions between water features make the experience of Aqua Foro less like a pool and more like swimming in architecture. By subverting familiar forms and sensations of urban life, the space is something unexpected, calming, and cleansing.
The structures at Aqua Foro each have a conceptual and functional analogue with typologies typically found in an ancient forum. The unadorned contemporary forms of these structures amplify the interplay of surface, water, and light.
Like an ornamental frieze, the precast concrete rooftop forms of Aqua Foro crown the utilitarian precast parking decks below and celebrate the craft of contemporary architectural precast concrete. The smooth surfaces chart the sun’s path, which warms some surfaces, shades others, and projects animated shadows. Water reflects rippled light onto these surfaces, and the garden plantings cast ornamental shadows and add seasonal color.
The new wellness spaces have had direct and significant impact on the residential occupancy of this multifamily development. The owner continues monitor usage of the facilities and their impact on overall resident satisfaction. While located on an elevated privately developed parcel, Aqua Foro contributes to a vibrant mixed-use development that benefits the neighborhood and city.
Architects: DIGSAU
Design Team: Jules Dingle, Jeff Goldstein, Rolando Lopez, Domenica Massamby, and Samantha Ding
General Contractor: Post Brothers Construction
Client: Post Brothers
Photographers: Halkin Mason Photography
