As an introduction to designing for a specific site, the studio was tasked with generating an imaginary landscape on which to propose an architectural intervention. The process was started by walking through different real-world environments (a park, train station, library, etc.) and recording the experience via a series of reductive maps. These symbolic drawings were combined and reinterpreted to create a highly complex 24x24” wooden landscape.
The landscape was then used as a basis on which to construct and calibrate surface structures that could provide shelter and shade, beginning to define spatial volumes where an architectural program could be inserted. A bathhouse was proposed for the site and was developed from the structural surface models into a final construction.
Each individual map represents a different walk through real-world landscapes, both man-made and natural. The symbols represent barriers and walls that necessitated a change in direction, generating many unique maps.
A 24x24” combination map that condenses the walking maps into a new imaginary landscape.
The final landscape was built out of halved 2x4s at varying heights that surround a linear path up to the central peak.
An ink on Bristol axonometric drawing of the landscape and a prototype shading structure model showing areas of light and shadow.
Form and lighting study.
The painted wooden model placed on the site. The roof structure consists of louvers that create horizontal strips of light along the path below, guiding occupants from one pool to the next as the day progresses.
Building sections showing the effects of the louvers and curved roof creating pockets of light that draw occupants from space to space.
The final bathhouse model placed in the site, designed to cover the path up to the peak of the landscape. The various pools in the bathhouse program are arranged along the path, from the frigidarium to the caldarium.
Roof Plan
