The Bathhouse, an interior Microcosm

Always fascinated by bathhouses as heterotopia and pleased to find this chapter from publication of ACSA Conference, 2017

Nerea Feliz Arrizabalaga

Abstract

Bathhouses constitute an environmental construction marked by the architectural articulation of the physiological and the meteorological. Collective bathing spaces form autonomous spaces for immersion within altered physics, artificial environments that are internalized and isolated from the environment. The most intimate contact between the body and architecture takes place at the bath space. As an interior space that protects the naked body from the elements and society, collective bathing spaces produce an intensified, contained and controlled earthly Eden. The peculiarity of collective baths as new artificial Natures, both at a physical, meteorological, physiological and social level, allows these constructions to be referred to as interior microcosms.

https://www.acsa-arch.org/chapter/the-bathhouse-an-interior-microcosm/

Peter