This was a student project by Benjamin Dunkmann-Howlett for Kay Bea Jones's ARCH 342 course, Winter 2008. Project statement: The design of a hybrid spa/athletic facility. This project was striving towards an architecture that is democratic in nature --the idea that no one person is above another due to socioeconomic status. This hybrid is an example of this duality. The Spa side was to be for private citizens while the Athletic side was for inner city Columbus schools to use as a gym/sports complex that they might not be able to afford or have room for on their main campus. So my design re-introduces the urban carpet to sweep through the building tying all the parts of the programming and not allowing one group to have anymore privilege than the other. This precedence is from Zaha Hadid's CAC in Cincinnati. Her urban carpet wants to join with the city but only ends up collecting dust underneath it. This project is a critique of architecture as a theme versus architect that is a device. --Benjamin Dunkmann-Howlett
