<div> <div> <div> <p>Building upon and extending a historical narrative composed by Allan Bérubé in 1984, this dissertation interrogates the relationship between physical space and sexual practice by engaging in a historiography of gay bathhouses and by comparing representations of these spaces in the past with contemporary narratives available online. An introduction and conclusion bracket three central chapters, each of which presents findings from a major component of the larger project: The first investigates Bérubé’s sources, methods and underlying political philosophies. The second engages in a case-study of the Bulldog Baths (1979-1982), a popular but short-lived establishment in San Francisco, CA. The third presents findings from a content analysis of contemporary bathhouse websites. Throughout, attention is paid to the active role of physical spaces in sexual encounters taking place in bathhouse settings, as well as to the spatial politics of the urban settings in which these establishments have historically operated. </p> </div> </div> </div>

In Iztapalapa, south of the Yuhualixqui volcano, lies an informal settlement of an estimated 2600 people. Informal settlements have with them the connotation of quick, temporary, unthoughful architecture that dissolves with the first pass of rain. In reality, most of the informal settlements that appear become permanent homes for those families. A community emerges through the rough architecture and the need for the basic necessities becomes a daily struggle. Religious faith is something that remains strong in slum communities, although water, the most essential element is missing. I attempt to address both the religious faith of the community and their need for water by providing a place where the most sacred and the profane meet. / Master of Architecture

How can architecture stimulate an increased haptic experience? People with sight lack the everyday immediacy of sensory awareness as compared with people with significant sight impairment. When sight is lost, the mind compensates by heightening the other senses for receiving information. In particular, people who are sight impaired depend on their "somesthesis," or skin sense, for information. In contrast, people who are sighted do not depend on somesthesis to accomplish everyday tasks. Many may go through an entire day without considering their sense of touch. If awareness exists, it is likely through discomfort such as that first barefooted encounter on ice cold tile first thing in the morning or grabbing a burning steering wheel after it baked all day in the hot summer sun. Heschong writes "If sight allows for a three-dimensional world, then each other sense contributes at least one, if not more, additional dimensions." (Heschong, p. 28-29) The sighted rely so heavily on the visual sense for information. They miss many simple tactile encounters along with all their contiguous sensational experiences, constricting the development of these additional dimensions, thus significantly diminishing the depth and complexity of their existence. This is an exploration of touch, a bathhouse, just south of Dupont Circle in the urban fabric of Washington DC. Experiencing a place where the entire body can intimately converge with a building saturated with tactile opportunities, the surprise of stimulating skin-to-surface encounters will remind us of our wonderful somatosensation. How we feel during these sensual unions will add vividness to our lives and a desire to again search for more tactile stimuli feeding our rejuvenated mindfulness. / Master of Architecture

The insertion of the bathroom into the floor plan of the traditional gentry house at the end of the seventeenth century disrupted the established sequence of rooms and the social order embodied in it. The gradual and uncoordinated trend towards bathroom ownership partook of the evolution of ideas about privacy, comfort and the specialisation of rooms in the grand house, and culminated in the compact bathroom. The revival of bathing took place against the backdrop of the Scientific Revolution, and was initiated by physicians. At first, the benefits of different methods of bathing were hotly contested. However, by the end of the century, physicians were beginning to believe that cleanliness, rather than cold water, was the key to good health. Although the rich often continued to build large plunge baths, this shift paved the way for the eventual dominance of the compact bathroom. At the beginning of the eighteenth century, a specialised bathing room within the house was out of reach for people of ordinary means. Changes to the plumbing trade were intertwined with developments that were to bring bathroom ownership within reach. In eighteenth-century Scotland, increasing numbers of bathroom projects might have been expected to expand the work of plumbers, but technological, commercial and legislative change—in particular the separation of design from construction—undermined their monopoly on their craft. Goods that had been manufactured on site and with local materials at the beginning of the eighteenth century were, by the beginning of the nineteenth, designed by a new breed of entrepreneur–inventor, manufactured by less skilled workers, and could be purchased in a shop and installed by a handyman with no particular trade identity. However, knowledge about the health benefits of bathing and technical advances are, in themselves, inadequate to account for the growing importance of bathrooms. The explanation lies in social, not technological or scientific change. Visiting public bathhouses exposed bathers to physical, moral and social pollution, at a time when failure to comply with the dictates of bodily cleanliness could provoke the disgust of one’s peers. Disgust constructed and policed the boundaries between social groups. Private bathing facilities met the requirements of bodily propriety without the risk of contamination. Moreover, a privately owned bathhouse in the grounds provided a focus for tourists or a site for intimate sociability. Bathhouses were a means of displaying wealth, taste and the fruits of the Grand Tour. Visitors could identify themselves with owners through the consumption of culture, improve their aesthetic skills through writing and drawing, and make claims to gentility through their appreciation of what they saw. As owners began to withdraw from the ever-increasing numbers of tourists, and from the formal sociability of the country seat, their bathhouses became a place for sociability in retirement which offered all kinds of entertainments, from boating and fishing, to cards and music.

This dissertation investigates the manifestation of a public bathhouse within a South African urban context. The proposal provides ablution and infrastructure to a public transport interchange precinct within Tshwane, Marabastad. The architectural exploration aims to enrich the ritual of cleansing by introducing the act of bathing to the public urban environment. Challenges associated with the typology is addressed through integration with surroundings, ensuring the potential of social life centred around a fundamental human act. The goal therefore lies in a celebration of ritual as derived from context, not the imposition of an ancient typology, or an irrelevant programme. The relevance to South African architecture is found in the investigation as a template for similar projects attempted in areas of similar context. A bathhouse is defined as an asset infiltrating, and proving for, its existing context. Copyright / Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted

The design of the building includes function bath operation in the specific town surrounding in the relationship to the river and estate. The building is compact matter of the irregular shape. The baths are in the heart of the building. In its dimension it passes into two towers. Active tower – the gym – oriented to the Down movement and the Relax tower - masages – oriented to the woody scenery.

The idea for my Thesis project sprung from a trip I made last June around the Northernmost of the great Japanese islands, Hokkaido. Due to unexpectedly rough weather conditions we had to cancel many of the hikes and climbs that we had planned and instead immerse our bodies and senses in the wonderful onsen culture of Japan. These bathing institutions really lured my architectural interest and especially everything surrounding the actual bathing. The connectivity between architecture and nature, the almost profanely directed rituals, and the special relationship between water, space and materiality was just some of the aspects that originated this project. To create a contemporary bathhouse in Stockholm using the teachings around the onsen and traditional Japanese architecture.

The plot is situated south of the small village Alberga in the south west of the municipality of Eskilstuna. The project is an example of how a landscape can be made accessible for people and through emotional conection be considered worth protecting, and at the same time offer a house for community. This is done with a House for the People - Folkets hus - together with a small spa inspired public bath with a fireplace in is center, and a research facility for conducting limnological and ecological research in the close marshy area and the lake Hjälmaren. The building is situated on top of three man made ponds, one new for the project, held upp by low pillars giving the house a floating impression. The architecture consists of a timber structure suported by rammed earth walls, the earth taken from the site when constructiong af a new pond. The three different usages of the program is separated into its own body and connecting them is a series of walkways, in some places suspended from the timber rafters. The project should... - Bring the community together in a flexible meeting place for many different activities- Preserv and strengthen a landscape´s ecology - Put a small village on the map and build a larger net of interconnectedness / Tomten ligger söder om den lilla byn Alberga i sydvästra Eskilstuna kommun. Projektet är ett exempel på hur ett landskap kan göras tillgängligt för människor och genom känslomässig koppling anses värt att skydda, och samtidigt erbjuda ett hus för gemenskap. Detta görs med en hybridbyggnad av ett Folkets hus tillsammans med ett litet spa-inspirerat bad med öppen spis i centrum samt en forskningsanläggning för att bedriva limnologisk och ekologisk forskning i det närliggande våtmarksmrådet och sjön Hjälmaren. Byggnaden ligger ovanpå tre konstgjorda dammar, en ny för projektet, hållna uppe av låga pelare som ger huset ett flytande uttryck. Arkitekturen består av en limträkonstruktion som bärs upp av stampade jordväggar, jorden hämtad från platsen vid anläggandet av en ny damm. De tre olika användningsområdena för programmet är uppdelade i varsin kropp och är sammankopplande med bryggor.Projektet ska... – Föra samman boende i takten genom samlingslokaler för flera olika aktiviteter - Ta till vara på ett unikt landskap samt att stärka dess ställning och ekologi – Gynna bygdens tillväxt med besöksnäring genom attraktivt besöksmål

Architecture and music share intrinsic meanings generated by a constant stream of metaphors which are forms of poetic transformations. This thesis sought to challenge the present way an architect-musician makes drawings through the exploration of multimedia possibilities at hand. The drawings are composed using Macromedia Flash MX. OPEN HOMEPAGE.EXE To download flash player, click here: <a href="http://www.macromedia.com/shockwave/download/download.cgi?P1_Prod_Version=ShockwaveFlash"> Download flash Player</a> / Master of Architecture

Mitt i gränsen mellan stadsdelarna Västertorp och Hägerstensåsen i Stockholm ligger den avlånga Mellanbergsparken. I det norra kortändan hittar man Hägerstensåsens tunnelbanestation och i den söndra går den mycket trafikerade motorleden E4an. Det är en platt park med få träd så den är starkt bullerstörd från E4an. I den söndra ändan finns ett utomhusbad som är välbesökt varma sommardagar, men  motorvägens närvaro går inte att ignorera, så badupplevelsen blir inte fullt så avslappnande som den skulle kunna önskas. Västertorps parkbadhus är tänkt att ligga i det sydvästra hörnet och då fungerar som skydd mot bullret. De högsta delarna i byggnaden hamnar närmast motorvägen för så stor bullerdämpning som möjligt, och för att minimera skuggningen av parken och utomhusbadet. Hela byggnaden är dessutom täckt med ett spaljésystem där klätterväxter kan slingra sig, och de tillsammans med den skog som planteras på markplätten som lämnats mellan byggnaden och motorvägen, bidrar ytterligare till bullerdämpning, samt till luftrening från alla avgaser. Entrén till parkbadhuset och dess tillhörande sporthallar är belägen i en gångtunnel som går genom byggnaden från den nuvarande gångtunneln under Personnevägen. För upplivning av tunneln och förståelse av byggnadens funktion finns här fönster in den djupa hoppbassängen. Själva simhallen är sammansatt av tre volymer som har olika takhöjd och nivå på golven som skapar flera typer av rumsligheter i ett och samma rum. Mellan de tre delarna finns dessutom höga pelare med metallstag emellan som stabiliserar den stora hallen. Längs dessa växer klätterväxter som tar in parkupplevelsen även inomhus. I den minsta volymen, ägnat främst barnen, finns också stora träd planerade som skapar nya rum mellan dem samtidigt som de förbättrar luftkvaliteten. / Amid the border between the districts Västertorp and Hägerstensåsen in Stockholm is the elongated park "Mellanbergsparken" situated. In the northern short end of the park you find Hägerstensåsen subway station and in the southern end is the highly trafficked freeway E4. The park is a flat landscape with few trees so the loud noise from the E4 is much disturbing. In the southern end is an outdoor swimming pool that is frequented hot summer days, but the presence of the motorway can't be ignore, so the experience of bathing will not be quite as relaxing as desired. The Park Bathhouse in Västertorp is supposed to be located in the southwest corner and then acts as noise protection against the motorway. The highest parts of the building are closest to the freeway for as much noise reduction as possible, and also to minimize shading of the park and outdoor bath. The entire building is additionally covered with a trellis system where vines can wriggle, and they, together with the forest planted on the land between the building and the highway, further contributes to noise reduction as well as air purification from all exhaust. The entrance to the park bathhouse and its associated sports halls are situated in a pedestrian tunnel that goes through the building from the existing underpass under Personnevägen. For understanding of the building's function there will be windows that go in to the deep diving pool. The swimming pool hall is composed of three volumes that have different height and level the floors, creating several types of spatial features within a single room. Between the three components is also high pillars with metal rods between which stabilizes the large hall. Along these wriggle vines that take the park experience indoors. In the smallest volume, devoted mainly to children, there are large trees planted, creating new rooms between them while improving air quality.