Julia David

The task is to design a thermal bath on the site of the Elisengarten behind the historical Elisenbrunnen. The spot in Aachen’s city centre is to get significantly re-designed in the sense of the long tradition of bathing and to receive a suitable entire idea with respect to its historical dimension.
For me the bath demands an introverted building of quiet, relaxation and intimacy.

The Elisengarten is worth to get preserved for Aachen’s citizens and offers space for the Elisenbrunnen to have a stimulating effect upon the urban context. To do justice to these aspects the idea of dipping into an underground, unusual world has become the primary leitmotiv for my design. Dip in means fleeing from the urban living for a certain time, enjoying the calm and focussing on oneself and the thermal bathing.

If the visitor dips through the Elisenbrunnen into the ground he paradoxically walks towards the daylight and always experiences something unexpected. Hidden light, stalactite ceiling shapes, a constant expanding and narrowing of the underground structure, often short, very exciting sequences of space and baths of different temperature and subject are part of the inner grotto world. Change of light and shadow, heat and cold, inside and outside, width and narrowness becomes a sensuous experience.

The archaic character of the only material stone makes both clear solidity and cavity of the grotto’s architecture. A game of positive and negative, addition and subtraction develops. Wall equals ground. Floor plan equals section.

Interior spaces partly come to daylight and form a sculpture garden out of the Elisengarten which is accessible from all directions. Out-sticking volume let daylight stream into the grotto and shine artificial light into the park. The place is given a special meaning and genuine quality through the structure of sculpture and architecture.

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