HarbourThe Culture of Inside-Out

General Brief Within the Harbour project, I propose I, as the designer, take on the role of a new International Bathing Company. This company operates across the world, with the sole inten-tion of attempting to design new proposals for bathing, that not only provide facilities that are derrived from the natural landscape of the area, but re-introduce a cultural space for socialising and envigorating local community wihin the modern world’s mindset. These social and cultural ‘experiments’ act as prototypes within cultures that have a history of social bathing, so that in the future of 2013 onwards, these site specific social interventions could be rolled out across countries that maybe do not have a history of baths, or whose 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.

The design of these bath houses will vary due to the four sites I have chosen. The ecol-ogy and landscape of the area will become a massive driving force behind design, with experience, inside environments and creation of social spaces some of the most important factors. Education also will become a factor of the bathing experience, of the surrounding landscape, as well as of his-tory and culture, with the design incorporating these subliminally, rather than as an obvious les-son. 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 fo, as well as the building actively slowing people at the site of social interractions.

As the title of the project suggests, ‘inside out’ is a rule I will be keeping in mind when designing. I have proposed four sites, each with very specific geographical and ecological condi-tions, from plant and tree species, to nesting or migratory bird habits, to weather. Each of these particular conditions I want to use as architecture on each site, inverting the usual idea of en-closure 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. The sites I have chosen are:

- The Gulf of Mexico - Coastal Plains - Morgan City (Sweat Lodge)- The Agean Sea - The Malian Gulf - Thermopylae (Greek/Roamn Bath)- Honshu Japan - Tsugaru Strait - Imabetsu, Aomori (Onsen Bath)- The White Sea - Dvina Bay - Archangel (Russian Bania)

Each site will have it’s own brief depending on social activity and local culture. This will determine whether the design will incorporate programmes for private spaces, connections with private homes, spaces for doing business, treatment and healing or game playing, for example.

Agenda

As my design project is interlined with my interests within the Thesis, there are a few questions that I hope I will be able to answer by using esign and writing symultaneously.

- 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

- Bath house must incorporate another programme

- Bath house must play with inside/out-side

-Bath house must use the landscape in its function

- Bathouses on each site must contain a social core

HarbourThe Culture of Inside-Out

Site 4 - Imabetsu, Aomori Prefecture - Japan

The specific site I have chosen is located along the river, on the boundaries of Imabetsu within Aomori Prefecture. The town is located close to many other small towns on the Tsugaru Paninsular, within the bay of the Tsugaru Strait, including Okawadai, Tsugaruhamana, and Min-maya, as well as many small vilages that are located at the base of the numerous mountains within the region. Highlighted below with:

I want to come up with a specific programme for this site, that uses the local landscape specificities and local community conditions, and the function of a bathhouse. Due to the fact that the site is located between many small towns and the mountains, as well as down the river that discharges into the bay and connects all these towns and typologies, I feel it will be a rich site for design.

I propose that this bathhouse perform the traditional function of an Onsen bath, using the natural springs in the area, but also provide social library spaces for communal learning and social interraction. The design and architecture will be created by the local landscape and ecology, as well as traditional vernacular and local input. Building materials must include the local timber from the forrest up the river between the mountains.

My bath house design from 3 dwellings. I used internal wood cladding to create a calm atmosphere, as well as openings to blur the boundaries of inside and out. Ecology, view and experience were key to the design.

HarbourThe Culture of Inside-Out

Site 2 - Archangel - Russia

The specific site I have chosen in Russia is located within the centre of Archangel, within a wooded inner city park. The City is located on one of the largest pieces of land within the delta tributary leading out into Dvina Bay and eventually the White Sea The landscape here is one of mixed typoogies, and the weather is varied and changable, with most of the year the land being covered by snow and ice. Highlighted below with:

I want to come up with a specific programme for this site, that uses the local landscape specificities and local community conditions, and the function of a bathhouse. The site is slightly more urban, as the population of the city is quite massive. I chose this site, as it sits quite centrally located to the main block of the City, within what seems to be an aready existing park. I felt that this site could become somewhere people will pass by everyday, and a perfect spot for a commu-nity driven bathhouse, allowing maximum publicity and footfall on a regular basis. I propose that this bath take the role of a Russian Banya, using traditional traditionas of the Russian bathing culture, but transforming this into a bigger scale for wider community use. I propose that along with the bathhouse fnction, there be differing programmes that happen symultaneously that the community may benefit from. As the Russians take a long time in their Banyas, maybe a Laundrette and Cafe space could be incorporated into the design, for community meetings.

The chocolate dwell-ing from the first term project played with permeability and projection into the landscape. I hope to take these aspects on to the Russian Bania, ceating a set of permeable screens into the landscape.