The Public Bathhouse Project
Sustainability becomes possible in design when spaces are created that are well loved and cared for over time.
Even the most well detailed, energy efficient structures eventually require maintenance, repair, and restoration— a particular care that is given toward structures that capture the hearts and minds of the people who use and occupy them. Wood and timber, concrete, tile, stone, steel and glass, a consideration for the cycle of the sun and the seasons, an economy of resources, and an eye toward energy efficiency are essential, but only when coupled to community involvement and community investment.
Community is built over time, through individual and collective effort. A healthy community depends upon a diverse ecosystem of diverse people with diverse interests and skills, bound together by diverse support services.
Public bath houses have long served the health and well-being of sustainable and thriving communities around the world.
The Public Bathhouse Project (PBP) is an inclusive, community improvement initiative whose mission it is to contribute to the physical, spiritual, and civic vitality of small town America. The sketches, drawings, models, and imagery below mark certain key aspects of Taber Bathhouse, the first of the PBP public bathhouse prototypes, situated in a small New England town and currently in design development. For additional information about this project or public bathhouses in general and the efforts of The Public Bathhouse Project, email publicbathhouseproject@gmail.com
