Assignment 2: Bath House

Program


To design a place for public bathing. Different approaches to rituals and protocols of bathing have often been discussed in relation to various traditional cultural settings. For example the bathing rituals of Arabic, Turkish, Roman and Japanese traditions are very different from each other and different again to the five minute shower common across most cultures today. For the purposes of this project we propose a focus on Roman bath houses, as a source of influence. You are encouraged to undertake research concerning Roman bathing practices and bathing spaces made to adequately house them. The bathing room should accommodate one person alone to no more than six people together at a time. The facilities should provide for hot as well as cold baths. The bathing areas can be conceived of as internal as well as external areas. Separate female/male use of the bathhouse would be arranged for alternative days - eg. females on Mondays, males on Tuesdays etc - do not provide separate male and female areas/facilities. You can assume that the use of the bathing room will generally be pre-booked, but it should also accommodate un-booked use. The procedure could be something like this: Make a booking at the pub across the street; pay and pick up a key; arrive and unlock the bath house; towels, soap etc. would be ready -having been delivered by someone beforehand, and used towels etc. removed sometime afterwards; bathe; leave used towels and rubbish in bins; lock up behind you – if you think of an alternative procedure, by all means use it – but make it explicit.


Consider issues, constraints and opportunities such as:
• The body - its disposition, dimensions and scale, posture, movement, senses and implications for selecting and locating different types of materials in the space.
• Articulation of ‘wet’ areas, ‘dry’ areas, ‘hot’ areas, ‘cold’ areas; the process of moving between and across them during bathing; their implications for materials and connections.
• Privacy - individual and communal. Provide places and adequate equipment, fixtures and fittings for the following:
• Arrival, gathering, undressing, hanging/storing clothes and personal belongings, picking up towels etc.
• One small toilet, and one small basin for hand washing
• Cleaning/showering with soap, sponge etc.
• Bathing, relaxing in the baths, chatting.
• Stretching out in the sun after bathing.
• Drying.
• Getting dressed, returning used towels, leaving.


Limits
Limits are generally as for the last project;
• The entire area of zone C is to be considered as a private zone to accommodate the bathhouse and associated outdoor facilities and spaces. Allow for a maximum internal area of 70 meters squared, you are required to consider the use and character of zone D within your overall design strategy.
• The bath and surrounding steps/ledges may be reinforced concrete and/or rendered brickwork and/or tiles.