GSA Showcase 2021

thesis

My proposal is a response to the growing diversification of cities and their cultural frameworks due to immigration and travel. As cities begin to diversify, a sense of community is becoming increasingly important in new urban culture and creating places to facilitate social interaction between people from all walks of life is needed more than ever.

Across the world and history there are various different typologies of the bath house and they often appealed to one religion, culture, gender or social class: they were used as a means of segregation. Glasgow has a rich history of Bath house culture where public baths were once seen as a place of community interaction and socialisation. One of the first 19th century baths in Glasgow was located on London road which sparked a surge in new public baths across the city centre. Overtime as it became common practice for every home to have its own bathroom and toilet the need for bath houses became less and less and many of them closed .

My project attempts to create an inclusive cultural exchange hub that is welcoming to encourage people from different religious, cultural, social and generational backgrounds to reinstate the bath house culture that once existed in Glasgow. The cultural exchange hub consists of the bath house with a main central pool space, that will accommodate 250-300 people and a learning centre equipped with reading rooms and collaboration space.