DESIGN STUDIES 4B PART 2
TO CARE:
A BATH
HOUSE FOR
THE CITY ELENA STEFANOVA UNIT 10 | YEAR 4
BRIEF
Concept
This project proposes a new bath house in Glasgow where the healing and calming properties of water are used in caring for new life. The bath house comprises of a waterbased birth centre and spaces dedicated to pre- and post-natal care related to water. The size and functionality of the spaces, where water is combined with a palette of natural materials, make them suitable for wider use with special opening times for the general public, who can also benefit from the gentle and nurturing activities available for physical recovery and mental relaxation. The bath house explores the relationship of a large-scale public building with its surrounding urban context. The project expands on the Greenhouse project from Semester 1, which proposed a mixed-use development in the Calton area in Glasgow’s East End, aiming to bring higher density to the former low-rise residential area by combining the urban density of perimeter blocks with a recreational open-air street market and a variety of public spaces. In this context, the bath house aims to address the surrounding residential and public perimeter blocks and open spaces, and enhance the life of the local community.
Water and Birth
From as early as 2700 BC, women of ancient Crete, Japan, South America and New Zealand were known to birth in shallow ocean and rivers. Water activates the “relaxation response” in the muscular system, and minimises stimulation to the vestibular system— the part which gives us constant information about the body. So even before science explained it, women instinctively knew to look for water to relax, relieve pain and anxiety during the stages of labour, delivery and post-birth. Today, women can choose between different places to have a water birth: a hospital, a birthing centre, or at home. All of those places can accommodate a waterbirth as longs as there is a sterile pool with water depth of 50-55cm and temperature not above 37.5°C Birth centres are a type of medical facility - midwife-led units which are still not widely popular in the UK, although they are gaining popularity across the world. They offer women an alternative to the hospital environment, with their calm and homelike setting and hours of personal attention from the midwives, which transforms the birth into a less stressful experience both for the mother and the baby.
“The baby doesn’t come out into a cold world where the force of gravity strikes like the blow from a club. One warm, bodysupporting liquid is exchanged for another. The transition to breathing air, to a life on dry land, takes place slowly and softly.” - Erik Sidenbladh, Water Babies (1982)
Prenatal and Postnatal Care
Birth centres can accommodate activities relating to prenatal and postnatal care. Prenatal care lasts throughout the whole pregnancy and can include things like health checks, advice about healthy eating and exercise from a midwife and breastfeeding workshops. Women are recommended to keep fit during pregnancy for better health and easier birth. Some forms of appropriate exercise include low-impact dance or aerobics classes, pilates, barre, yoga, tai chi, etc. Additionally, swimming or water aerobics classes can be especially suitable, because the water supports the body’s increased weight. During these classes women can meet other expecting mothers and form friendships and a supportive community which can help them emotionally and mentally during the first months as a new parent. Postnatal care and exercise is also important. Keeping active can help the body recover, feel more relaxed and energetic, as well as improve the mental state. Postnatal exercise classes can include the baby or its pram as part of the workout.
SITE
Greater Glasgow - Birth Centre Availability Currently, there is only one birth centre in the wider Glasgow area - the maternity unit in the Vale of Leven Hospital. The bath house project proposes a new one, in a more central location, part of a master plan for redevelopment of the Calton area in the East End of Glasgow (4A Greenhouse project).
hospitals
Location Plan 1:1 250
4 min
Free standing birth centres need to be close to hospitals in case of emergencies. The site of the bath house is a 4 minute drive away from the Glasgow Royal Infirmary. The bath house swimming and spa facilities also serve the communities of the surrounding area. Its recreational functions can be combined with the functions of the nearby Glasgow Green park.
medical facilities swimming facilities
Transport Connections 12 mins
The site is well-connected to the rest of the city through the rail and bus networks. It is also close to multiple parking lots. This allows for a reduced amount of parking P P pedestrian character of spaces in the vicinity of the building, which enhances the the development.
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CITY CENTRE
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parking lot bike station main bus routes
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Location Plan 1:1 250 This project attempts to build upon the conclusions of the site research for the Calton area from the 4A Greenhouse project. This neighborhood appears to have good transport connections and proximity to amenities, like green spaces and shops. Nevertheless, the area suffers from deprivation in the domains of employment, income, crime, housing, health and education. The bath house is part of a master plan which aims to diversify and intensify the activities near the Barras Market by creating a pedestrian market street from the Barras in the direction of the Bridgeton cross with mixed use blocks around it.
Barras Market
Ma rke tS tre et
Site Plan 1:500 The bath house would serve as a landmark public building to the Calton development. It is near the west end of the new market street, with a wide public square in front of it, where the main entrance is situated. The birth centre is served by a separate entrance to the much quieter street to the east, where an ambulance could arrive unobstructed in case of emergency. The birth centre rooms benefit from south-facing terraces towards a quieter street off the main square.
BATH HOUSE
Curtilage Plan 1:250 The area in front of the bath house acts as an extension to the public square at the beginning of the Market street. The design aims to bring some of the elements of fluidity and water from the inside of the building to the outside. A coffee shop faces this public space, with its roof shaped like stairs acting as sitting space for customers and passersby.
Plaza and Front Approach
Programme Diagram The spaces in the bath house serve visitors of the birth centre in preparing for birth or recovering after it. Activities such as prenatal and postnatal swimming and exercise take place in the main pool and exercise studios, while the small pools are equipped for water-based spa and physiotherapy procedures. The bath house is also accessible for members of the general public who want to take advantage of the relaxing atmosphere. The private birth centre rooms have a comfortable internal connection to the pools and exercise studios.
Plan 1:200 Ground Floor
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The journey through the building moves past the reception area, which gives away the curves of the therapy pool rooms. The wet changing area is fully accessible, with an additional fire exit at the back. As the visitors find their way through the therapy pools, they’re surrounded by smooth surfaces, soft turns and muted light. An accessible ramp leads them upstairs to the main pool.
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1. Entrance foyer 2. Waiting area 3. Reception 4. Office 5. Toilets 6. Storage 7. Assessment room 8. Staff break room 9. Plant room 10. Wet changing area 11. Therapy/spa pools 12. Staff parking 13. Refuse area 14. Coffee shop
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Waiting Area and Reception
Therapy and Spa Pools 1:100 The individual therapy and spa pools are suitable for one-on-one sessions like aqua yoga therapy, Watsu, sound baths and other types of water therapies.
Therapy and Spa Pool
The ground floor therapy and spa pools are separated in individual spaces with in-situ reinforced concrete walls, which carry the weight of the main pool upstairs. The spaces are additionally sculpted with curving ceilings on steel frames and smoothed on top with tadelakt applied on plasterboards until they become homogeneous in look.
Changing Area
Plan 1:200 First Floor B
This floor holds three of the exercise studios and the dry changing area, as well as the connection between the birth centre rooms and the bath house facilities.
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1. Exercise studio 2. Dry changing area 3. Toilets 4. Storage 5. Plant room 6. Birth rooms 7. Main pool
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Main Pool 1:100 The main pool is covered by a dome with a rooflight window, which illuminates different parts of the pool throughout the day. The symmetry of the room with its equally spaced arched openings continues the fluidity of shapes from the downstairs pools.
Main Pool
Birth Room 1:25 The birth centre has six en-suite birthing rooms, each with a south facing terrace and equipped with a pool. The rooms are suitable for stays of several days before and after the birth. From their room women can visit the nearby exercise studios and pools. The private rooms are acoustically separate from the bath house and from each other with a system of soundproofing insulation boards on clips to reduce transfer of noise through the CLT wall panels.
CLT wall panel insulation slab rubber clips holding channels acoustic plasterboard acoustic membrane acoustic plasterboard
Birth Room Terrace
The top floor houses an exercise studio with views out onto the square in front. This part of the building is elevated like a tower above the square, giving this corner a landmark quality, as well as indicating the entrance of the building.
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Plan 1:200 Second Floor
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Exercise Studio
Front Approach
West Elevation 1:200
South Elevation 1:200
East Elevation 1:200
North Elevation 1:200
Back Street
Section A-A 1:200
Section B-B 1:200
MATERIALITY & CONSTRUCTION
Tadelakt
The material Tadelakt is used as internal finish in the wet spaces. It is a lime plaster paste originating from traditional Moroccan architecture, where it was used to coat palaces, hammams, and bathrooms. It is rammed, polished and treated with soap to make it waterproof. It gives a soft, undulating character to the ceilings, floors and curving walls, making them smooth, seamless, even monolithic-looking.
Copper
Copper is used for the fixtures in the wet spaces, like shower heads, sinks, door handles and tiles around the pools. When the skin touches a copper surface, the body absorbs small amounts of it — copper has a therapeutic effect on joint movement and connective tissue by reducing inflammation, it helps in the synthesis of phospholipids that are essential for the formation of myelin sheaths, making the brain work, and regulates the working of the thyroid gland.
Cladding Materials
Some of the other cladding materials include timber vertical screens, concrete terrazzo and glossy ceramic tiles - contrasting with the matte tadelakt, combined in a palette of muted, earthy tones, which add to the calming character of the bath house spaces.
Tinted Concrete
The outside of the building is clad in pink-tinted lightweight concrete panels fixed through the insulation to the external walls. It provides a durable finish with additional thermal mass, while aiming to unify and express externally the atmosphere of the material palette used inside.
Detailed Section 1:50 A0 scaled down
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Exploded Isometric Diagram - Structure The structure of the building combines timber frame and reinforced concrete frame. The body holding the pools uses reinforced concrete in load-bearing walls and column-and-beam frame with CMU infill walls, while the rest of the building has a GluLam frame with CLT infill walls and floors. The reinforced concrete is used to support the weight of the pools and to create the dome over them, while the timber provides a warm and comfortable feel to the other spaces, and it corresponds to the internal timber finishes. The coffee shop facing the square also has reinforced concrete structure, which shapes the public stairs used for seating and leaves the concrete externally exposed.
Detail A 1:10
ROOF -metal coping at parapet -20mm gravel -1mm polymer bitumen membrane (waterproofing) taken up 250mm above finished roof level -12mm plywood sheathing board -360mm roof-grade wood fiber insulation board -1mm air and vapour control membrane turned up and taped with damp-proof membrane from wall -12mm plywood sheathing board -timber firrings to fall with vented cavity -1mm vapour control membrane turning up at parapet -145mm CLT panel -GluLam primary beam 400x150mm (with hanger to column) -secondary beams (roof joists) 160x100mm -services -suspended ceiling system
EXTERNAL WALL (outside to inside) -green wall panel -stainless steel frame screwed to insulation board -60mm insulation board -1mm damp-proof membrane -160mm insulation (between timber studs) -1mm vapour barrier -90mm CLT board -60mm service zone (insulated) -12 mm moisture resistant plasterboard -render
Detail B 1:10
SUSPENDED CEILING SYSTEM WITH COVE LIGHTING -steel channels bolted to underside of CLT floor -12mm moisture resistant plasterboard panel -light source -mechanical ventilation ducts passing through heat recovery unit
Detail C 1:10
ROOF -metal coping at parapet -20mm gravel -1mm polymer bitumen membrane (waterproofing) taken up 250mm above finished roof level -360mm roof-grade wood fiber insulation board -1mm vapour control membrane turned up at parapet and taped with membrane from timber roof -screed laid to falls -200mm concrete roof deck -plaster
INTERNAL WALL (Concrete frame + CMU) -plaster coat -12 mm moisture resistant plasterboard -50mm service zone, acoustic insulation between battens -200mm concrete masonry unit -26mm service zone -12 mm moisture resistant plasterboard -tadelakt - waterproof lime plaster (5 layers)
Detail D 1:10
INTERMEDIATE FLOOR -5mm tiles taken up 1200mm on wall -1mm primer+tile adhesive -45mm screed with inlaid underfloor heating pipes -1mm waterproof membrane turned up at junction -12mm recycled rubber impact sound insulation -60mm flooring grade rigid wood fiber insulation -1mm breathable floor protection membrane -130mm CLT panel -GluLam primary beam 400x150mm (with hanger to column) -secondary beams (floor joists) 160x100mm
expansion joint
SUSPENDED CEILING SYSTEM hanging pole bolted to underside of CLT floor
hanger for main keel main keel wall angle
hanger for visible frame keel
visible frame keel at 600mm c. 12mm acoustic ceiling panels
Detail E 1:10
concealed metal plate connection of CLT panel to foundation insulation backed concrete board
GROUND BEARING FLOOR SLAB -5mm tiles -1mm primer+tile adhesive -45mm screed with inlaid underfloor heating pipes -1mm vapour control layer turned up at junction -200mm concrete slab, thickened below load-bearing elements -1mm separating layer -150mm rigid insulation -1mm damp proof membrane -75mm sand binding -150mm hardcore
Detail F 1:10 elastic sealant to movement joint between pool tank and rest of floor slab
pool running edge capillary breaking joint filler channel piece with outlet to drain waterproofing
mortar tiles pool tank
screed laid to falls
GluLam Beam to Concrete Frame
GluLam Frame
Facade Cladding on CLT Wall
Green Wall Facade System