This studio focused on considering space through the lens that is as temporal as it is immaterial: architecture in relation to water. Built structures have a deep and complicated relationship with water, most being built to provide shelter from it, some allowing it in, and others may be partially composed of it. More importantly, humans who occupy these structures cannot live without water. It exists not only as a necessary component of our biology but also as one of the most integral drivers of culture and society. We began with investigations of water in the built environment, with extensive site analysis spanning over a mile out from our designated site. Following that, we dove deep into historical bathhouse precedents from both the modern age and as early as the first century. We then created a series of water systems that explored the different ways water can be transformed, carried, delivered, and diverted.

Our site: the Distillery District, Lexington, KY. This historic area is occupied by large former distillery buildings that have been adapted into restaurants, shops, and bars. Directly next to our building site runs the Town Branch creek, an important waterway for Lexington. Additionally, the site is adjacent to a historic water tower. Water truly impacts and occupies this site.

This bathhouse takes visitors through a procession from isolation and deprivation into clarity and exposure. The form of the building itself is pulling, pushing, and attempting to break from the ground, all in unsettled motion. To begin designing our bathhouses, we were tasked to create four mood-based, collaged “bath rooms” that focused only on feeling, sensation, and environment. These would be our four bath experiences in our final bathhouses. The idea was to create a journey, a “ritual procession” through each of these experiences. The four “bath rooms” were Obscure, Translucent, Dark, and Illuminate. Each were created to heighten one particular sense, for example, touch or sight, while obscuring others.