Tarini Vajpeyi

Urban Architecture

Bathhouse of Enchantments and other tales of Heterotopia

Situated within the rewilded fallows of Friche Josaphat in Brussels, the project explores the untapped potential of post-industrial sites as anomalous counter spaces or Heterotopias in the city and questions how their peculiar spatio-ecological qualities can provide opportunities to mediate between necessary urban development and existing/emerging biodiversity. 

The Friche - now an ecological hotspot - stands contested between housing developers and locals protesting for its preservation.     `

The solution: a border of collective housing, an adaptive “alt”(ernate) community space interlaced with shared gardens, and a hidden bathhouse - shapeshifting in its function, materiality and landscapes. The bathhouse is a mediator between city and Friche - initially fostering community engagement and water collection. In the longue durée, it decays and returns to the soil, leaving behind only the housing, a hofje-like central landscape and the genesis of a wetland that will slowly reinvigorate the polluted soil. 

The design literally unfolds in tales and stories of the Friche’s past and present atmospheres and speculates on narratives of its future.  

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