Robin Klein

Thermal bath in Aachen (old medical centre area)

Concept:
For the local residents this area is a popular and highly frequented place for relaxing. The thermal bath is placed on the eastern edge of the park area and is opened by Maria Theresia-Alle and Schillerstrasse. The basic idea of the concept is to enhance the area through a sculptural architecture, not to divide the park or to remove some attractiveness from public areas. The landscape covers the completely introverted building and thereby offers again place for all kinds of plants and low level growing trees.
Street-sided the face of the building appears as an ensemble of a green facade embedded harmoniously in the surrounding nature, and the "white rocks" in the background which should adopt the colour of the surrounding nature in the course of the years.
From the west side (park side) the visitor exclusively sees the abstract rocks rising out of the area which hosts the single baths.
The visitor enters the thermal area by the "Showers gills". The cleaning process prepares the body for the next experience. After the "cleaning" the visitor enters an absolutely introverted place of stone.
The function of the "rocks" is, on the one hand to separate the thermal bath into different places and on the other to use them for the main construction.
Exciting perspectives are revealed in every single area of the thermal bath. Water filtered light from the big upper light illuminates a large part of the bathing area and drops like a grid of "water flicker" on the surfaces.
Every rock is an individual space experience and should be understood as a solid block, hollowed out by subtraction. Sometimes break-like sharp edged, by fluent water full-organically hollowed out or as an ellipsoid body which gets the light by tentacle-like extruded "feelers".

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