TE ARO
BATHS
2015 VUW: Trimester 1 [Design]
Lecturer: Dr Peter Wood
Tutor: Terèse Fitzgerald
Stream Typology: Tidal Pools
SYNOPSIS
Te Aro Baths is located along the narrow shoreline of Oriental Bay, situated at the end of the town belt that dwindles down towards the harbour from Mt. Victoria. This project is mainly a series of differential tidal pools, including artificial pools, thermal baths and an extensive pier structure.
Formally, a linear arrangement in plan and section, occupants follow a directional path or journey through the baths. The ritual of disorientation within water was used as a mechanic to inform the construct of social and spatial bewilderment through the linear trajectory. The main tidal pools are arranged alongside one another, each bath a consecutive shift in scale, transitioning from larger pools into isolated bath units. The baths swell in depth the further into the harbour occupants’ progress through this journey. The tea and changing room linked with the notion of disorientation, the harbour tidal change has been augmented through the internal program and structure. The building displaces its position through the movement of tidal change, which circulates clock-wise through the inner Wellington harbour. Disorientating placement of belongings within the changing room compartments, and the flow of resting space through the tea room.
The furthest point of the journey is the pier; the typologies of piers appear as flat and dull surfaces. This pier has been merged with a topographical form, creating an undulating landscape amounts’ the water - a levitated island. The dock is supported by significant steel pillars that connect from the harbour floor perforating through the pier structure and elevating upwards, bringing an upright stance to a mainly horizontal conception. Oriental baths is a unified fabric of mega-form, a horizontal topographical character of programmes that mimic and manipulate the surrounding natural land-form (Allen 2011). The notion of reestablishing the Oriental bay tea room and the tidal bath complex is appropriate for two typologies that have been disconnected and forgotten within the short span of Wellington historic fabric.
Allen, Stan, and Marc McQuade. Landform Building: Architecture's New Terrain. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller, 2011. Print.
Stream Typology: Tidal Pools
SYNOPSIS
Te Aro Baths is located along the narrow shoreline of Oriental Bay, situated at the end of the town belt that dwindles down towards the harbour from Mt. Victoria. This project is mainly a series of differential tidal pools, including artificial pools, thermal baths and an extensive pier structure.
Formally, a linear arrangement in plan and section, occupants follow a directional path or journey through the baths. The ritual of disorientation within water was used as a mechanic to inform the construct of social and spatial bewilderment through the linear trajectory. The main tidal pools are arranged alongside one another, each bath a consecutive shift in scale, transitioning from larger pools into isolated bath units. The baths swell in depth the further into the harbour occupants’ progress through this journey. The tea and changing room linked with the notion of disorientation, the harbour tidal change has been augmented through the internal program and structure. The building displaces its position through the movement of tidal change, which circulates clock-wise through the inner Wellington harbour. Disorientating placement of belongings within the changing room compartments, and the flow of resting space through the tea room.
The furthest point of the journey is the pier; the typologies of piers appear as flat and dull surfaces. This pier has been merged with a topographical form, creating an undulating landscape amounts’ the water - a levitated island. The dock is supported by significant steel pillars that connect from the harbour floor perforating through the pier structure and elevating upwards, bringing an upright stance to a mainly horizontal conception. Oriental baths is a unified fabric of mega-form, a horizontal topographical character of programmes that mimic and manipulate the surrounding natural land-form (Allen 2011). The notion of reestablishing the Oriental bay tea room and the tidal bath complex is appropriate for two typologies that have been disconnected and forgotten within the short span of Wellington historic fabric.
Allen, Stan, and Marc McQuade. Landform Building: Architecture's New Terrain. Baden, Switzerland: Lars Müller, 2011. Print.
