This experimental project is about to use the mineral component of the thermal-water to build warming units, presenting multisensorial perception.
Thermal water is a fantastic thing! Unfortunately it has one harmful feature. Limescale is everywhere and we keep trying to get rid of it. But, can we use it as a positive material?
Under 4/5 part of Hungary, close to the surface, there is a lot of thermal water. From 1000 metre deep, the mineral content of thermal-water is able to create surface, make space, and contain light in its white colour. On the ground there are 1400 drilled sources, out of work. It is a huge source of energy and also an opportunity of tourism. It carries minerals, heat, vapour, also presents reflections and special experiences. All in all it has its own unique atmosphere.
Curiosity, researching and experimenting were the three most important notions of our work. It was the result of a long process. We used lots of materials to find out which one is able to work together with limescale.
Our idea is a space, which is different year by year, the walls are shaped by the deep, the colours are given by the reflected lights of our own body, all built by limescale. Every unit has its own identity, depending on the quality of the thermal water.
The diploma is basically a cooperative project in an irregular way that has been created between the Design and Art Department and the Institute of Architecture.
It is about the geothermic position of Hungary and applications of thermal water utilization from the view of human perception. Our goal is to create spaces with the mineral content of the thermal water.
I was very supportive of the designer and architecture students collaboration which created a successful precedent at our institute. It was particularly interesting to see how the interdisciplinary nature of their work helped to develop an original idea during the entire process.
SCALE is a poetic proposal that focuses on the time dimension of architecture both in the sense of the experiencing and the process of creation that does not stop with constructing the buildings. A clever network of edifice-clusters benefitting natural resources of geothermal hot springs are linked by a kind of pilgrimage route. Each cluster is a composition of three main elements determined by the specific properties of the place. The invisible mineral content of the local water not only becomes perceptable but during a slow crystallization process it eventually forms a rigid, ever growing structure overtaking the initial light frame of the bathing hut.
Special emphasis was put on the way we experience our environment using all our senses including peripheral vision, touch, smell and hearing. The sensual qualities of water here point way beyond clichés by providing an unconventional aspect to well-known phenomena. Even the mineral residues that are perceived a nuisance in traditional spa culture are turned into an advantage, hence the title that also refers to the micro and macro nature of the scheme.
