DESA1002 'Continuous City' Qiao Rebecca Qin>

Abstract

Hamam, in Persian culture, is not only a place where believers can fulfill the Islamic ideal of cleanliness, but also a place for people to come together to socialize and gossip. Not many people are wealthy enough to have their own bath house, so public bath houses are part of everyday community. This project, Persian Hamam, featured heavily within its form as cultural spaces were carefully constructed to allow for a sense of sequence and refreshment. The use of the variation of spaces, such as the grand and the narrow bathing spaces, embraces the rhythm of movement and experience that pre-exists within the structural layout of the Islamic architecture, yet through the opposite texture and form of the roof, the building revises the context and a sense of continuity and evolution. The aim of this design was not merely to create a practical building form, but also a sustainable machine in which the massive horn-shaped structure that penetrate through the roof can act as rain water collectors and light well for the bathes on basement. Meanwhile, with the elaboration between material and the function of spaces, rich spatial and tactile experience is offered by the Hamam.