A floating transparent sauna in Hardangerfjord, Norway.
Constructed in 2002 for the community of Rosendal, Norway, the sauna in the Hardangerfjord serves as a democratic centerpoint of the village.
One comes to the public sauna with a rowing boat, takes off the clothes and enters the bath. The floor is open to the sea, making it possible to have a dip inside
the sauna. The walls are semi-transparent and pulsating according to the steam raising up from the water thrown to the hot stones.
Urban Accupuncture There was a time in the Medieval Prague when there was free beer in the street corners. It was the right for a Prague citizen to get his free beer. This was a democratic offering from the city. We can add these kinds of democratic offerings to all existing cities without removing anything or basically building anything like urban accupuncture. Add a new layer to the existing urban context, a Human Layer and heal the body.
Like the attic is the memory and subconscious of the house we need to build up urban public attics to reinforce the common psyche and give the urban subconscious platforms to take form. The urban attics are
stress and artificial time offering a possibility to meet human time. Attics are a place to store things. The objects on attic have fine qualities of meaning and story. Walk about in
Swimming in the river Thames may result in a near-to-death experience if you believe local authorities. Prevailing strong currents impose the risk of drowning to the pleased swimmer, sharp objects like broken glass and metal pieces on the ground, a piranha here and there once in a while, and - of course - the quality of the water harming your respira-
tory tract, eyes, and ears. But did you know that until 1972, the City of London was putting up a beach close to London Tower, refreshing the sand every year? Actually, you will find more spots than you can think of to take a dip close to your city. Places where you might go for a swim as proposed by the River and Lakes Swimming Association (RALSA):
* * * * *
Tooting Bec Lido the Serpentine Highgate ponds Frensham Great Pond Clifton Hampden Duxford, difficult to find, down a private-looking pea-gravel path beside a tiny thatched cottage. * Hurley Meadows caravan park, no need to have a caravan! * Rushey Weir Pool loads of picnic space.
other peoples heads. The attic space is not fixed to the present moment but floats in time being a space where memories and subconscious can be met mixing architecture and poetry. On this level every human being can be touched. A personal story might get evoked inside every one entering the attic this is human architecture
and this we must bring to city. These structures are not at ground level, they are above it. It is necessary to climb up a set of stairs or a ladder in order to access them. Like emotional memories are stored upstairs in the brain. Memory is rarely, if ever, perfect, the objects on the attic might get changed
by the time becoming distorted and it is no longer what was the truth then. It is the truth now of a memory that you had which has been manipulated by every second of your life experience. The story is alive in us. We need to scale this up into urban planning with the same human accidental quality of truth.
It has been observed that Mandala Temples of Tibet shed energy that remarkably improves the harvest within the radius of 20 km. The current project puts 9 Mandala Temples in the centre of London along the river Thames within 34 km. The project takes notice of the historical formation of the London city centre.The temples will be located in the areas between the bridges more along the southern shore. A chain of yantras will be brought into being to interfere in the life rhythm of the central London with positive energy. The Mandala Temples on
river Thames are quite small: they should fit in a cube of 12x12x12 m. The ground plan of each temple has an image of a certain mandala. 3-dimensional mandala becomes the instrument of God. The shape of current buildings have been derived from cubes, cones and cylinders. In the centre of the easternmost temple stands the statue of Buddha, the holy statues of the other temples are situated on the edges of the plan. The central space of the temples is empty: it is appointed for the monks to make the mandalas. These spaces are lighted by little cupolas.
The making of the mandala takes place once a year and it lasts for 7 days. After that the colourful sand is wiped together and thrown into the river Thames. In other days of the year the temples are freely opened to meditators and prayers. The mantras of the meditators and the yantras of the linear temples bring forth an enormously powerful wave of positive energy that covers the whole London with a medicative veil. London gets rid of anxiety, fears, desires, cars, beggars, whores, drunkards, drug addicts, ugly buildings, rotten tomatoes, sad cats and finally himself.