Thames Baths Project
16/04/2014.
Blackfriars. [LON] UK
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
Swimming in the Thames. The Thames Baths Project proposes the reintroduction of swimming in the River Thames.
"Plunging Policemen". Three fully-clothed members of the Port of London Authority Police jump into the West India Docks during the annual test of their life jackets. (Photo by R Wesley/Getty Images).
Diving into the #Thames 1934.
Floor plan. 'Thames Baths' at Blackfriars by a team that included architects Studio Octopi, Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects and Civic Engineers.
Rendering. 'Thames Baths' at Blackfriars by a team that included architects Studio Octopi, Jonathan Cook Landscape Architects and Civic Engineers.
Swimming pool on a building rooftop of Gran Vía, Madrid. Photography © Enrique Sáenz de San Pedro.
Other project was the proposal by The Eastern Reach, this team included George Wade, Ed Wall, Helena Rivera, Alex Malaescu, Kate Priestman and Chris McCarthy. They explored the eastern edge of London along the tidal Thames, an area between where Greater London ends and where the London Transport system begins. The work was presented to a public audience on September 2013 and was showed at the Royal Academy as part of the Richard Rogers exhibition.
Last year, The Royal Academy of Arts ran a design workshop with the Architecture Foundation and Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners aiming to spark new ideas to improve London’s relationship to the Thames. They had some fascinating responses: from ‘River Rooms’ to real-time crowd-sourced digital layers. One of the most seductive was a proposal for 'Thames Baths' at Blackfriars by a team that included architects Studio Octopi with Civic Engineers and Jonathan Cook Landscape. Taking advantage of the new ‘Super Sewer', which will make the Thames clean enough to swim, the project aims to let Londoners 'liberate themselves from the intensity of the city by swimming in the Thames… in as natural an environment as possible’. The project is gaining some momentum and more information is available here: thamesbaths.com or follow the project on Facebook.
From METALOCUS, from MADRID, we propose an alternative to Londoners; swimming pools on rooftops London, as in Madrid, a city with no beach also.
Studio Octopi writes.-
"Swimming has always featured in the River Thames. The ability to do so has become harder and harder as river traffic has increased and London’s population has outgrown the ageing sewage system. However plans are in place to upgrade Sir Joseph Bazelgette’s sewers and therefore dramatically improve the quality of the river’s water. The Thames Baths Project is about imagining the possibilities of safely swimming in the river and opening up a discussion about the future."
