The Bow Creek Cultural Bath House.AN ISLAND PENINSULA

Within the Harbour project, I propose I, as the designer, take on the role of a new International Bathing Company. This company operates fundimentaly in London to begin with, with the prospect of expansion, with the sole intention of attempting to design new proposals for bathing, that not only provide facilities that are derrived from the natural landscape of the site at Bow Creek, but re-introduce a cultural space for socialising and envigorating local community wihin the modern world’s very private mindset. This social and cultural ‘experiment’ acts as a prototype within LONDON that has a long and rich history of social bath-ing, so that in the future of 2013 and onwards, these site specific social interventions could be rolled out across other London bor-oughs or areas within England and beyond that have lost their social and cultural heart. Social acceptability of communal bathing in modern times has diminished with the advent of expensive personal bathrooms and luxury spas, where privacy and seclusion have become the choice, but for many communities that no longer know their neighbours, a bath house that proposes experiencing new and unusual cultural practices that none may have exerienced before, could act s a social catalyst for conversation and meeting new people from the local area and beyond. (NO NUDITY REQUIRED).

The design of this bath house incorporates the bathing cultures of the four countries I have chosen, who each have their own very specific bathing practices and landscapes. The ecology and landscape of Bow Creek became a massive driving force be-hind design, with experiences, inside environments, ecology and creation of social spaces some of the most important factors. Edu-cation also will become a factor of the bathing experience, of the surrounding landscape, as well as of history and culture, with the design incorporating these subliminally, rather than as an obvious lesson. The design should become a ‘users manual’ for those who use it, with the knowledge of what to do next being designed into the building, so a flow of activity and bathing ritual is provided for. In this instance, the cultural patterns reflected in teh timber roof structure.

The theory of Japanese Fudo is a key theory and at the forefront of the design ideas and thoughts. The theory revolves around the idea that history, nature and landscape has an impact on the individual, and vice versa, completing an ever repeating cycle. In this sense, connection with the site, the surroundings, their history and the lost culture of bathing in London and all of these aspects impact on us, the user, must be aparent within the design and use of the building. In order to do this, I have focused on the design of a Fudo roof, and the building’s connection with Bow Creek Peninsula.

The idea of ‘inside out’ is also something I will be keeping in mind when designing. I have proposed that four sites become my cultural inspirations, each with very specific geographical and ecological conditions, from plant and tree species, to nesting or migratory bird habits, to weather. Each of these particular conditions I want to use as architecture within my bath house, invert-ing the usual idea of enclosure and landscpae, to create a new culture of inside out architecture. Today, people have a fascination with trying to re-create, as accurately as possible, a natural occurance within interior architectures, (for example The Rain Room by Random International), yet we moan when it rains naturally outdoors! Why can we not, then, capture this natural occurence, and create an interior atmosphere that uses it naturally, without the need for re-creation, and create a magic out of it?

My sites are located in an area that already naturally blurrs the definition of inside and outside, by siting all four in towns located in bays, within inner seas. In Russia, North America, Japan and Greece.

Agenda

As my design project is interlined with my interests within the Thesis, there are a few questions that I hope I have been able to answer by using design and writing symultaneously that can be seen within my design and its future use, for a social and cultural bath house.

- Why, beyond cleanliness, do people bathe?- What are the different processes and actions of bathing across different cultures? Why?- What is the link between inhabitation by humans and the weather/landscape?- How can we design architecture of ecology?- How can we blur the boundaries between outside and inside?- How can we enliven social interraction by creating a new bathing culture?- How can design for bathing become an instruction manual for cultural bathing?- How can, therefore, spaces that actively create an environment for social interraction, become natural interior environments?

Design Rules

- From findings from the Thesis and the questionnaires I utilised, the general public said that they would be more likely to visit a building such as this if other programmes were also on offer. The bath house must incorporate other programmes that draw people into the building. Namely; Cafe, Local History Centre and local shop.

- The bath house must play with inside and outside boundaries.

-The bath house must use the landscape and Bow Creek’s geography in its func-tions and their designs.

- The bath house must focus on bringing communities and local society together in experienceing something new along-side each other.