The Palace of Hygiene serves to challenge the American idea of public bathing and hygiene. Public bathing has been historically eminent in several cultures: Roman Baths, Turkish Bath Houses, Scandinavian Bath Houses, Japanese and Korean Bath Houses. Using these historical examples as precedents for this project, the conceptual and architectural approaches were heavily influenced. Large open spaces in the project were inspired by the spatial planning of Roman Bath Houses. Heavy, monolithic roof forms were inspired by the formal qualities of the Turkish Bath Houses. Combining many different roof typologies-arches, vaults, domes-and then stacking the roof forms, this created a sequential experience throughout the project allowing some spaces to seem heavy and monolithic and other spaces to feel large and open. Using the technique of stacking the roof forms, the bath shapes were able to form on top of the roof geometry, creating different experiences as one moves from one bath to another. The variety of thermal qualities and formal qualities makes the experiential aspects of the project takeover.
A big emphasis on this project was the idea of crossing thresholds. Thresholds of interior and exterior space, dry and wet space, and even clothed and nude spaces. Focusing on these threshold crossings, this helped bring to light the experience that one would have ween moving through the sequence of this project.
The Palace of Hygiene brings historical qualities into a contemporary world and culture. Combining all these different elements we were able to explore the ideas of public hygiene and bathing in a world and culture where privacy has become the new norm.
