Rain on water

Shot at the site at Nøstet. See at YouTube for right proportions :) I like the way raindrops draw circles on the calm surface of water, and I image this could be like inside the bath at spots where rainwater is allowed directly in.

Pictures from site tour

Images from Nøstet, Bergen

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Concept model 5 - vertical and horizontal layers

This model shows some smaller situations. An outside situation where the body of the build offers vegetation to grow on it, a long hall with round windows, a smaller intimate crypt with a small bath, that lets in light from above. Below is anther source of water, maybe seawater coming in through a hole in the floor.

Also in this model I experimented composition of materials; the main build is in a harder material with slick surfaces. In the hall there is soft wood to walk on. The roof of the hall that extends over the main build is a rougher, darker material.

Concept model 4 - the generous facade

I imagine that the body of the skinship can be available to people that are not using the inside. At the site, an industrial area slowly in transformation, many people already finding small intimate spaces to hang out. I believe they experience it as finding special secret places, and this is a notion I would like to work with and preserve.

Concept model 3 - private and public

One of my early findings, a wasps nest, finally found its place. With its delicate walls it represents the apparent transparency or availability that I look for at the bath, or the skinship. The web that embraces the nest represents the contact with the city, how it is a closed entity, but it is also linked to the city.

In Japan and South Korea, the term "skinship" (Japanese: sukinshippu (スキンシップ^?); Korean: 스킨십) is used to describe the intimacy, or closeness, between a mother and a child. Today, the word is generally used for bonding through physical contact, such as holding hands, hugging, or parents washing their child at a bath. (wikipedia)

Skinship n. Feelings of relatedness and affection between two people, particularly a mother and a child, caused by hugging, touching, and other forms of physical contact. (wordspy)

Further, the theory that physical intimacy leads to emotional intimacy.

Concept model 2 of bath - difference in temperature

This is a concept model made just after my last talk with my tutors. The fluffy mass that enters the bulb represents warm space, the rugged bulb is an embracing skin. Between the insides of the bulb and the walls of the warm space is a cool space. Here enters water from the sea. There is an opening in the top letting in sunlight from above. Also rainwater enters here and runs down the outside walls of the warm internal space.

On the bottom picture can be seen the cuts made in the façade to let in additional light into the cold space. Reference to the video posted earlier. After more investigation turns out that this kind of light happens when reflected light from the sea breaks on a reflective surface (could be glass or some kind of metal). In the break the light is thrown at a specific angle on inside walls, always changing with the angle the sunlight hits the water surface.

The bath

Yesterday I made this first concept model of the bath at Nøstet. Main elements are a more closed entrance space, represented by white cube, where changing of clothes happens. Could also have more elements such as after bath relaxation space. A main platform stretches from this space through to the bath, which is a translucent space, and out on the other side of the bath. The dressing space is halfway hanging off the pier. The bath has drowned in the ocean, its walls going down into the water. The walls of the bath allows daylight to enter during the day and like a light tower it lights up during the night. It is not transparent enough to allow silhouettes to shine through to the outside.

I suggest a modern kind of bath which is a lot to do with the sense of water in Bergen. A place where you can experience waves and the salt water, because it is that which is entering the enclosed bath space. The openings are big enough to let the motion of the ocean come through, however I must look at this if I need filters to take away oil from the sea. In the same big bath space are smaller tubs with hot water.

At one place there is a sauna aswell.

To be with people, and to see people, in this situation, is a very humble meeting. It is very tactile and bodily. The space is large. Sound of water hitting surfaces. Play of light.

This is not a common place - a common place!

Concept model of BIKS today. Located in narrow streets that are not much visited, especially in the evenings. The big scene, Fensalen, is reached through several halls and staircases. You cannot know what is going on there from the outside, a problem since the program always varies.

Lately I have been thinking about how to create a program that can make a background for meeting, a place where people of different cultures can meet, understand... but not forced socializing. I have been aware of the many young women/girls that have an immigrant background and that have many restrictions as to which activities they can participate on. Many have school as one of the few places to meet new people. Others, anyone, are blinded by their own cultural or familiar traditions, and do not know of alternatives.