RanaHedhun.
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Leopold Banchini
Roundabout Baths transforms an impersonal and inaccessible fountain, trapped at the center of relentless traffic, into an intimate and communal experience where undressed bodies meet in water. Roundabouts — those circular, unreachable spaces where cars dance endlessly, looking for meaning — become here the setting for a temporary public bath.
Once the pride of 19th-century social movements promoting public hygiene for the working class, urban public baths have slowly closed their doors, unsurprisingly replaced by private and commercial wellness centers, mirrors of our times.
Combining changing rooms, steam rooms, and cold-water basins, Roundabout Baths offers privacy while occupying a central point in the city. The temporary public program reveals the hidden potential of a car-dominated urban environment, hacking street equipment and transforming our perception of these forgotten spaces.
The tall walls of the bathing facility are made from a regular timber structure clad with uncut wooden panels, temporarily used for the installation. While the panels will find a second life after the festival, the fountain itself will return to its uselessness, leaving behind only memories and new visions of what public space could be. The heart of the restless circle of motion, shaped by absence, will return to oblivion: a fountain pouring silver into the dark.
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Herzog & de Meuron
Currie Park Towers, West Palm Beach, Florida, USA.
Herzog & de Meuron, in collaboration with SpinaOrourke + Partners and Enea Garden Design has designed a new residential project for a site adjacent to Currie Park in West Palm Beach, Florida. The project is the first step towards the realization of the team’s mixed-use Currie Park Master Plan.
The project consists of two towers embedded within a lush park-like landscape extending from Currie Park on the east to the surrounding residential neighborhood on the west. One hundred and fifty-two apartments with extensive shaded terraces will share parking, residential and public amenities within a low plinth designed to minimize the impact on the surrounding streets and neighborhood. Tropical planting and views are prioritized over the standard elevated podium.
The Currie Park project provides a resilient approach to the specific conditions of the South Florida climate. Extensive shaded terraces, space for PV cells in the facade, and rainwater collection features are all prominent components of the architecture. At street level, an extensive park-like landscape enhances the pedestrian experience while an activated, public street-level program binds the project to the city around it.
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STUDIO SCHLOO
Kindergarten Bächler in Kilchberg. Winning competition entry.
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Herzog & de Meuron
NE A Street in Bentonville, Arkansas. A new mixed-use development is coming to the north side of Bentonville’s Square, bringing new homes, shops, public spaces, and an underground parking garage while preserving key pieces of the city’s history.
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