Archinect - News

Disorientation, can be its own kind of decadence

2018-04-16T20:52:00-04:00

Latches that wouldn’t catch on doctors’ lab-coat sleeves replaced ordinary doorknobs, plywood wardrobes were raised off the floor for easier cleaning...radiant heat panels in the ceiling minimized drafts and balconies were oriented for optimal sun exposure. Other Modernist sanatoriums include the Klinik Clavadel in Davos, Josef Hoffmann’s Purkersdorf Sanatorium outside of Vienna and Jan Duiker and Bernard Bijvoet’s Sanatorium Zonnestraal

Alice Gregory, with a paean to sanatoriums. Plus, a review of contemporary, historical and Modernist, spa culture.

From sundlaugs, to rockpools and The Basin

2016-05-24T00:07:00-04:00

These public pools, or sundlaugs, serve as the communal heart of Iceland, sacred places whose affordability and ubiquity are viewed as a kind of civil right....The pool is Iceland’s social space: where families meet neighbors, where newcomers first receive welcome, where rivals can’t avoid one another.

Dan Kois considers how communal pools and the sociability of soaking, are "a key to Icelandic well-being."

On a related note, Dan Hill recently published an essay reflecting on ‘The Pool’, a book published as part of The Australian pavilion for the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale. The interviews collected therein he finds, make a case for the pool as the authentically antipodean contribution to urbanism, a distinctly Australian public place, the country’s piazza.

Peter Zumthor loses bid for Vals thermal baths

2012-03-13T00:19:00-04:00

Swiss star architect Peter Zumthor has lost a battle for ownership of the spa and hotel complex in Vals, eastern Switzerland, which he designed. The commune, which owns the complex, decided on Friday night to sell it to 35-year-old property developer Remo Stoffel.