{"id":1503,"date":"2025-07-24T10:30:48","date_gmt":"2025-07-24T10:30:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/?p=1503"},"modified":"2025-08-01T15:11:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-01T15:11:02","slug":"leopold-banchini-transforms-roundabout-into-intimate-and-communal-public-bathhouse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.angesfinanciers.org\/index.php\/2025\/07\/24\/leopold-banchini-transforms-roundabout-into-intimate-and-communal-public-bathhouse\/","title":{"rendered":"Leopold Banchini transforms roundabout into “intimate and communal” public bathhouse"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Leopold<\/div>\n

Swiss studio Leopold Banchini Architects<\/a> has turned an existing fountain on a main road in Logro\u00f1o, Spain<\/a>, into a temporary bathhouse<\/a> as part of the Concentrico festival.<\/span><\/p>\n

Named Round About Baths, the temporary bathhouse and steam room was built on a semi-circular fountain surrounded by a roundabout in Plaza Sal\u00f3n near Logro\u00f1o’s city centre.<\/p>\n

\"Bathhouse
Leopold Banchini has turned an urban fountain into a bathhouse<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Informed by 19th-century public baths, the studio built a timber structure directly onto of the fountain to fully enclose the existing water basin.<\/p>\n

This basin now acts as an open-air communal bath, while changing rooms and a steam room were built alongside it.<\/p>\n

\"Bathhouse
The bathhouse is located within a roundabout<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“Round About Baths is a temporary public building transforming an impersonal and inaccessible fountain trapped at the centre of relentless traffic into an intimate and communal experience where undressed bodies meet in water,” said the studio<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“Pride of the 19th century’s social movements promoting public hygiene for the working class, urban public baths have slowly closed their doors to be unsurprisingly replaced by private and commercial ‘wellness centres’, mirrors of our times.”<\/p>\n

\"Timber
The bathhouse has a timber frame<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

To create the enclosed space, the studio built a simple structure from timber that follows the outline of the fountain.<\/p>\n

Attached to the timber structure were panels made from uncut timber, which form high walls to block out the surrounding traffic.<\/p>\n