Building a Bathhouse within a Room | Bucharest, Romania | Unit 21 | 2021

Awarded First Class Honours
Awarded Year 3 Portfolio Prize

‘The creation continues incessantly through the media of man.’ – Antoni Gaudi

The project prompted a consideration of the scale at which people think about, design, and interact with architecture. Time spent indoors during the Covid-19 pandemic led to an exploration of ways in which objects can be moved around within a design.

The project aims to research the ways in which designing the building at scale 1:1–using virtual reality (VR) in conjunction with body augmented tools–can create a new design and building process. How can body restrictions determine the ways in which the building elements develop? Does the use of the body as a main tool in the design process determine the organicity of the architecture and the fluidity of the spaces inside? Can something that is designed in virtual reality become part of the architecture of reality? During the design process close attention was paid to the link between body movement, the tools that were used to control the shapes in VR, and the techniques used to bring that language into reality.

The building is located in Bucharest and the bathhouse was chosen as a programme. This decision was inspired by the similarity between the moment at which one’s body is immersed in water and the moment when one’s body enters a virtual reality; both are immersive environments.

Virtual Reality – Tools – Materials

Exploring the ways in which external tools and the environment at a 1:1 scale influence the process of design within the virtual reality and the materials used in the building process.

Building a Bathhouse within a Room

Exploring the interior spaces created by the design process. Scale 1:1