US architects make Latvian thermal baths a space of unity

Santa Monica-based studio Steven Christensen Architecture has been honoured at the first ever American Architecture Prize awards for its proposed design for the Liepāja thermal baths and hotel in Latvia.

The firm’s concept for the not yet built project was inspired by the team’s keen enthusiasm for the role of the dome throughout architectural history, particularly its role in public baths. As such, you might describe the studio’s proposed design as dome-centric. Given the use of the circle, or dome, as a powerful symbol of unity and gathering, Steven Christensen Architecture intended the baths to be a space of togetherness.

A series of spherical voids cut into the rectangular concrete structure, creating a cavern-like interior and an exterior more than a little reminiscent of Emmental cheese!

Steven Christensen Architecture’s design won the team a Silver Award for Recreational Architecture in the AAP American Architecture Prize.

Source: Designboom