Architecture Reclaimed: Building on the Margin Bayswater Marina Proposal Report
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...”
Site
Context
Stillness/Serenity/Immersion/Floating/Projection/Horizontality/ Disconnection/Seclusion/Reflection/Sensual/Sensory
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Breakwater/Marginal Strip/Access/Attraction/Recreation/Destination/ Public/Utility/Health/Wellbeing/Enjoyment/Social/Fashion/Baths
Wellness Centres/Saltwater Pools/Harbour Baths/Piers/Promenades Floating Structures/Swimming Pools/Reflective Facades
Precedents
By looking to the concrete and abstract terms embedded in and evoked by images from the site and context report, the conceptual ideas on which the architecture is based, in terms of the mood it seeks to set and the programme provided, is clarified. Programme is derived from site and context where the sites inherent sense of stillness and immersion are combined¬¬ with its historical function as a retreat. Precedent studies focus on thermal baths and wellness centres, saltwater pools and harbour baths, piers and promenades, floating structures, swimming pools and reflective facades as points of interests
The Therme Vals, Graubunden Canton, Switzerland / Peter Zumthor
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...�
The Therme Vals, a cavernous structure half buried into the hillside, through materiality and light creates a highly sensuous and restorative experience for visitors seeking to luxuriate in the ancient act of bathing. Light and shade, open and enclosed spaces, linear elements and use of locally quarried stone are combined with still and flowing pools of water found in the variety of pools and baths, engages all five senses and creates deeply immersive experiences of space ad bathing. Here, the internal space is a defined by a path of circulation which leads bathers to certain predetermined points whilst letting them explore more intimate spaces for themselves. In this discovery of space, the perspective is always controlled, ensuring and denying views.
Leça Swimming Pools, Leça de Palmeira, Portugal / Alvaro Siza
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...”
Leça Swimming Pools, comprised of changing rooms, a cafe and two swimming pools, is a careful reconciliation between architecture and the coastline. Positioned out of sight from the access road that follows the coastline and preserving much of the existing rock formation in its design, the pool complex reaches out into the ocean and blends into the Atlantic Ocean landscape creating a sense of serenity and seclusion. Sights and sounds of the ocean are either ensures or denied by walls and ramp elements in the procession of spaces crating a highly sensory experience when walking through whilst use of concrete a shade lighter than the natural rock, demonstrates an materiality that is authentic to site appreciative of its surroundings.
Floating Baths, Vlatava River, Prague, Czech Republic / Ondrej Lipensky and Andrea Kubna
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...�
Floating Baths, conceived a close rounded space floating on the water surface in the middle of a river, is an attempt to attract locals to the waterfront. Comprised of a variety of amenities such as leasable cabins, lounge areas, restroom, sauna, steam room, public lavatories, showers, cloak rooms and bar to provide refreshments, the bath serves as a destination point for the public. In the centre of the structure is a river water pool filtered by special textile membrane providing bathers with clean water. The pool is accessed by stairs created by centred circular platforms. Not connected to the river bank, the bath is only accessible by boat. This combined with its closed, rounded internally focused spaces, creates a sense of immersion and seclusion where the city and its associated chaos is blocked from view.
Hasle Harbour Bath, Bornholm, Denmark / White Arkitetker
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...�
Hasle Harbour Bath situated in and amongst numerous breakwaters with its series of harbour swimming facilities and walkways, caters to the growing trend for natural swimming pools and public’s need for access to the water. The structure comprises of large wooden platforms which float in the water providing different swimming and recreation areas, and a pair of towers that accommodate tiered bleacher-style seating areas whist offering vantage points over the harbour. The two stair towers rise up to six meters on either size of the platform supporting two diving boards along one of its edges. Here, the structure is designed for users to respond intuitively. Intended to revitalize the harbour as a place for living and recreation, the structure also supports ferry access, fishing and other local industries.
Sea Organs, Zadar, Croatia / Nikola Bašić
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...”
Sea Organ, a natural musical instrument, exudes whistles and wistful sighs as the movement of the sea pushes air through it. Set within perforated stone stairs that descend into the sea, is a system of pipes through which, depending on the size and velocity of waves and wind, musical chords are played. Each of the 35 pipes is tuned differently, playing mellifluous tones that increase and decrease in volume with the changing winds, tides and boats and ferries passing by. The harmonic sounds can be enjoyed on the white marble steps off the promenade which offer seating and easy access to the sea. Here the terraced promenade and its perforations, unites architecture and environment whilst engaging the public with the sea and its sounds.
Floating Sauna, Hardangerfjord, Rosendal, Norway / Casagrande Laboratory
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...�
Floating Sauna, a small 3x3 enclosed space constructed on a 5x5 pontoon platform and situated in the middle of the sea, offers an intimate and immersive sauna experience. Sitting inside, the floating structures moves in accordance to the mood of the sea while its semi-transparent walls glow and pulsate according to the steam rising up from the water thrown onto the hot stones inside. One comes to the public sauna swimming or rowing a boat, takes off their clothes and enters the bath. The floor inside, opens to the sea, making it possible to have a dip inside the sauna. Both the journey to and the experience inside, heightens one’s awareness of being surrounded by water, and offers a sensual encounter with the sea.
Mirage, Tinos, Greece / Kois Associated Architects
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...”
Mirage, conceived as an invisible oasis, incorporates a cantilevered infinity pool as the roof of a cavernous house in order to integrate the building into the landscape and make it disappear into its scenery. Here the rimless, rooftop pool acts as a mirror, helping the building camouflage with its surroundings, creating a visual effect where the water seems to extend out into the horizon, vanishing and merging with the seascape. The pool’s reflective quality and horizontal projection into the sea evokes a sense of stillness allowing for a deeply immersive and sensual experience where the residents can enjoy panoramic views whilst engaging with water.
Breath Box, La Grande Motte, France / NAS Architecture
“...be desirable to reserve for any other purpose of public convenience, utility, health, or enjoyment;...”
Breath Box, a waterfront pavilion, incorporates 345 polished-steel plates on its sea-facing facade to reflect its scenic location and capture the site’s prevailing coastal winds. The mirrors are lifted up and down by the breeze animating the facade and city and reflecting the sea in distorted way where a deformation is created through the changing natural conditions throughout the day. Here, a key site constraint is used to abstract the vision of the site through a simple system of steel plates and hinges. The panels offer interaction as users experience reflections of themselves that change with the winds, whilst sometimes offering views of the sea behind. Here, reflective surfaces facilitate self, and site awareness whilst providing a highly sensory experience of a windy waterfront site.
Proposal
+ Wellness Centre
Immersion
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+
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Hotel/Cafe/Bar/Restaurant
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Takapuna Boating CLub + Bayswater Bath Restoration
Wharf Extension/Pier
Rowing Club Extension
+ Rich Bathing Experience
Secondary BreakWater
Floating Structures
Terraced Promenade
Reintroduction of Water
Framed Views of City/Sea/Sky
Sensory Pavillions
Intimate Spaces
Reflective Surfaces
Harnessing Sou’Westerlies
The proposal is for wellness by the sea. Encapsulating the site’s inherent stillness and serenity, the proposal for Bayswater Baths and Wellness Centre seeks to revitalize the area by returning it to the retreat it historically served as in the 1920’s. Promoting health, rest and relaxation, the proposal seeks to provide some place to “get away from it all” - some place for people slow down and stay. The architecture proposed intendeds to create a deeply sensuous and highly immersive experience of bathing in and by the sea, surrounded by the sea, through the reinstatement of a public saltwater swimming pool and creation of new swimming and bathing facilities. Here, on the scenic waterfront site, the wellness centre, complimented by hotel, bar and restaurant is envisioned to serve as a fashionable destination for city-goers and locals alike, generating activity and ensuring profitability whilst a continuous promenade running along the site’s margin with steps descending down into the sea and a secondary floating breakwater improves access to, and engagement with the water.