Open Garden Squares Weekend

On the 11th June all private London Gardens became open to the public. I decided to visit some including the boat gardens (above), a short walk East from Tower Bridge. The boats are joined with planks of wood and small foot bridges. As the boats are private, everyone knows each other and they always seemed to be saying hello to each other. One man I spoke to said that he bought his boat in Amsterdam and one day decided to sail it down the Thames. That evening it had become very dark so he said he decided to moor it temporarily in the spot it is in today, and subsequently he has been living there since! When I was walking across the tops of the boats I had forgotten I was even on the Thames. The plants had grown high and become so dense like a small wood. The experience felt so magical as it was such a different place to be, the summer sun was setting and the smell of BBQs were in the air!

I took this photograph so i could view my chosen site in context. The site is situated to the right of the Yacht Club, which is currently an area used to keep small boats and yachts. I chose to design a bathhouse in this area because it would create diversity in the very traditional fishing town of Hastings.

One of many caves in the cliffs at Hastings. This image went on to influence my ideas of designing rock pools in the cliff, represented in a model below.

I made this model from clay so i could dig out and also add to the form when needed. However, I moved away from this idea as i wanted to considder the ground level site as well.

This is a sketch that carried on the idea of rock pools, however i wanted to extend them over the site, which sat infront of the cliff. I went on to sketch more baths that stretched to the ground floor, which is where i established the main base for my design.

This is a collage I drew at scale 1:100 of the beach platforms and pools. The blue area represents the seawater and the cream area represents the shingle. These platforms may move around over time and can fill with sand, shingle or water. I want these objects to blend in with the environment and to establish their own positions across the beach. They may be filled with plants or sea creatures, which will then provide a unique place for people to learn about coastal habitats and observe their development over time.

A model photograph looking towards the cliff and the bathhouse. The scattered beach platforms and pools were an extention of my proposal from its original site. I wanted to allow visitors and locals to be involved with my intervension even if they didn't want to bathe at the bathhouse. The sandstone platforms provide a place for people to sunbathe, read a book, talk to friends and even dip their feet in the water pools while observing the sealife that inhabbits them.

This picture shows how over time the tide has deposited shingle over the stone boulders. As a result of weathering from sub-aerial processes and action from the sea, the edges of the sandstone have become rounded and smooth. This is the result I aim to have with the beach platforms and pools, which will contrast with the more angular edges of the groundfloor steps at the bathhouse.

This image was taken during the making of my final model. It exposes the different levels of the ground floor, which would be shaped round the bases of the water columns. The steps offer a place for visitors to sit and socialise, as well as providing a varied topography from which the organic columns sprout from.

A front elevation showing the bathhouse in context.

A plan of the second floor showing three private treatment rooms, accessed by the staircase on the left. The windows carved out from the cliff are angled inwards to frame the view and also provide a natural source of light. The windows are positioned at two levels, one at eye level when standing and the other, when lying down.

This collage reveals the views out to sea from the second floor. I positioned the treatment rooms high up within the cliff to take advantage of the amazing panorama as well as the innate fabric it is surrounded by. The sandstone walls were kept bare to reveal their true beauty, but also to compliment the very natural site.

On my travels I am always looking out for new structures that can influence my own design ideas. I took this photo at Stratford train station of the main bus station. The flute-like columns are similar to the shape of my water pools in the Bathhouse. I researched this structure on the web and saw how at night the shelter transforms into something very vibrant and dramatic compared to how it apears in the daytime. The following link is the website of it's designers, Architen Landrell Ltd, who have used similar materials in their designs for the British Museum cafe and the entrance of Surrey Instiutute of Art and Design.

http://cgi.www.architen.com/cgi-bin/www.architen.com/project_detail.pl?section=public&project=project9

This image, shown as section, simply illustrates how the bathhouse sits inside the cliff as well as infront of it. Public space is external while private space exists within the cliff.

I took this photograph in the London Docklands during a previous project sited at West India Quays. I used this image as in inspiration to help me focus on how my bathhouse had to work as a water system as well as a place to bathe and socialise. I thought about how the pipes would transport the water from the sea to each water pool and how the water would be cleaned and also deposited after use. The collage below shows how i have revealed the pipes underneath the glass floor. I wanted the water system to be visible to visitors in some areas so that they could observe the process of how the water is cleaned and circulated.