How to win architecture competition? | Site Bathhouse by ArkxSite

In this article, we continue our series on Competitions.archi, presenting a collection of articles on different architectural competitions. Today, we will be featuring the winner of the Site Bathhouse Competition by AArkxSite.

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VICUS CAPRARIUS

REFLECTIONS

My architectural research began at the School of Architecture in Florence, Italy, and continued in Spain in MArch – Master in Architecture Design and Innovation – and in the Fran Silvestre Arquitectos studio where I currently work. Knowing different approaches and different developments towards architecture has been very important for my education because it has given me the opportunity to experiment with new proposals each time. At the beginning it is never easy, especially when participating in international competitions, where the level of proposals is certainly very high. I was lucky enough to be awarded an Honourable Mention in the first international competition in which I participated with other colleagues of mine, and this gave me the impetus to continue submitting proposals in other competitions. Winning an architecture competition is never easy, especially because there is a jury judging you and it is possible that a project that is evaluated positively by one juror might not be evaluated in the same way by another. So, the most important thing is not to think about what others might like, but to try to remain yourself and come up with a design, an atmosphere, a render that is right for you and that is fulfilled from your point of view. In addition, participating assiduously in competitions, especially at the beginning of our careers as architects, allows us to build an important portfolio that we can show, that can tell our story, our path and development in architectural research.

CONTEST

The following project is developed for the ‘Site Bathouse’ competition proposed by the international online platform Arkxsite. This is a very important and well-known platform that has been constantly proposing new challenges for many years, which are always very interesting. I had already participated in other competitions on this platform in the past and I must say that I find the proposed themes on which to do architectural research very stimulating. These are always themes linked to a connection with the past, with history, in fact in each competition one is faced with having to rethink ancient ruins scattered around the Portuguese national territory, in symbiosis with the arid rocks and the infinite horizon of the ocean. In particular, this competition in which I participated is entitled ‘Site Bathouse’ and involves having to design a bathhouse near a military fortress located near the tourist town of Ericeira. The Milreu fortress looks like a disused ruin on top of a cliff overlooking the sea, which can be reached via a sandy path through uncultivated vegetation. The theme proposed by Arkxsite was to rethink this ruined space as a spa house, a place where one could come into contact with nature, with the ocean, but also with history. The theme, as I have said before, seemed very interesting and stimulating to me because I always find the problem of having to build in the vicinity of an old building very topical, and so doing an architectural research stimulated me to participate once again in an Arkxsite competition.

ATMOSPHERE

The central themes of water and ruin and how they could dialogue brought my mind back to Rome, to the Trevi Fountain. Below the monument is the Vicus Caprarius, the city of water. These are the remains of a Roman house and aqueduct at an archaeological site nine metres below the current road. Hence the idea of the project, that is, of a silent atmosphere, hidden underneath a monument, which cannot be seen at first glance and which leaves all expressive power to what is on the surface: in this case I thought that the best way to enhance the ruin was to leave it as such. The project should therefore have been developed at a lower level, where there is no visual connection with the artefact and the sea, but it is more of a sensorial experience. Already in the first sketches I had very primitive spaces in mind, lit only by sunlight, which was only to filter through cracks in the walls at certain points (IMG 01). I imagined almost dark spaces, where one could hear in the foreground the sound of water drops coming from inside the spa and in the background the sound of ocean waves breaking on the cliffs. I immediately went in search of this atmosphere and feeling. I didn’t have a clear idea of what the design would look like, the floor plan, the section or the images, but I knew that the livability of the spaces would be there. In a way, what I was looking for was to design a space that would give the feeling that it had always been there: a ruin beneath the ruin, a primitive, ancestral space that seemed to have been carved out over the millennia by a drop of water.

PROJECT

My approach is not always the same towards a new project: sometimes I have a form in mind and I go in search of how to develop it, other times the site reminds me of sensations that I have already experienced at certain times in my life and I try to re-propose them through particular atmospheres. Often I see other projects published in other competitions or by important architectural firms and I focus on a particular detail that impresses me and I decide to research this and try to start from there and develop a new proposal. As I mentioned before, in this case I was sure that the project would have to develop below the fortress, without being discovered by the visitor from the distance, but I was not clear from the beginning how I would develop the various spaces. The brief proposed an entrance hall that could mediate between the surrounding nature and the interior spaces, changing rooms, a space with showers, a cold water pool, a dry room where one could dry off and finally a hot water pool. The square metres to be related to each space were not specified, but were left up to the designer. As the fortress was modest in size and the project had to be developed underneath it, the spaces would not have been very large, and this immediately gave me the size of the whole project, which could then accommodate a few people at a time, perhaps by prior arrangement. And that was definitely what I was looking for because I imagined quiet spaces that could be used by a few people at a time. I was also sure that the section would be interesting because in front of the fortress, looking towards the sea, there is a small terrace where cannons used to be placed, and it was under this terrace that I thought it would be possible to place the design of the baths (IMG 02-03). The spaces below are then accessed via an external staircase that simply forms a cut in the earth, almost invisible from afar, adjacent to the fortress (IMG 04-05). Descending this staircase, one arrives at the space that acts as an intermediary between the exterior and the interior spaces: it is a partially covered terrace that overlooks the sea and seems to be carved into the rock, in fact a part of the cliff enters the space as if it were a parapet and delimits the path of the person entering the spa house (IMG 06). For the location of the interior spaces, I thought that all of them should be in the dark except for the hot water pool, which was to be the only room located outside and which had direct contact with the sea. The plan therefore conforms as a rectangle where the various rooms follow one after the other, and the only outdoor spaces are located at the beginning and end of the whole project (IMG 07-08). After the entrance, one enters the changing rooms through which one enters the shower corridor, which has a direct view of the outside, where the hot water pool is located. From the shower area one immediately enters the cold water pool, a semi-dark space lit only by a gap formed by the meeting of the ceiling and the perimeter wall, which do not touch each other (IMG 09). Without returning to the main corridor, but directly from the pool, one enters the dry room, a dark space where the body is prepared for the final hot bath. It is only at the end of the thermal path that one goes outside, where one finds the view of the sea again by immersing oneself in the main bath (IMG 10).

THOUGHTS

In conclusion, I can once again say that I had a positive experience participating in an international competition; it was certainly a formative challenge for my career as an architect. The first time you take part in an international competition you have many doubts and uncertainties, but at the same time you have the will to get involved, to want to prove yourself or simply to design architecture for pure pleasure. Often the idea is not born immediately, and this is not due to a question of maturity. There are simply challenges that are closer to our idea and consequently we approach them faster and more quickly because our soul is already accustomed to that kind of development. Other times, on the other hand, the challenge is more difficult, we are not comfortable with the proposal of competition, it is something we have never faced before. I believe that it is precisely these challenges that we need, trying to break out of our comfort zone and face something that at first leaves us puzzled but which in my opinion we should not shy away from. The advice I would give is not to be afraid to put yourself on the line, to face every competition and every project while remaining yourself, trying time after time to refine more and more a style that must be recognisable at first glance. The most important thing is not to be afraid if the idea is not born out of the blue, but to keep searching endlessly because the idea is always born from several elements interacting with each other.