The bathhouse would be the new architectural connection a bridge between Porto’s quarter of Bonfim and the Douro River, both physically and symbolically. The project would recreate a lost community that was located by the river and is now severed by city growth and the steep site topography. It is more than a bathhouse structure; it is an environment of flow, encounter, and assembly where people are brought together by experiences of water and each other.

The architecture develops as one line in the earth, with two separate journeys of connection. One journey takes travelers through a more secluded, intimate experience within the bathhouse, wherein the materials, forms, and spaces are sculpted into the earth. The second route creates a public passage, which curves around the site and is an open, see-through connection between the community and the river. It not only creates a physical connection, but a symbolic connection between old and new, past and present through the element of water.

Water is the center of the architecture, because it is the element that binds all things together. The tidal river pool, at the bottom of the site, is built to track the tide of the river and serves as a public meeting area. The bathhouse has a variety of water experiences bio-filtered pools, mineral baths, and traditional bathing areas each offering its own type of connection, whether it’s the soothing immersion in water or the communal gathering in the public spaces like the tea house and bar.

The structure itself encourages interaction and gathering.

Material selection granite, Corten steel, and locally made azulejos tiles is a reference to the Porto cultural and natural environment and is a move towards place. Materials are carefully balanced to reflect the mass of the site and the transparency and lightness of the public space. Open space and tension-glass frontages establish open relationships between interior and exterior and form a building that is grounded and open to the context.

The architecture is concerned with more than the physical link to the river; it’s concerned with establishing a feeling of community and belonging. The interior spaces of the bathhouse are designed with the express intent of encouraging individuals to linger in the company of others whether in the communal acts of bathing or in the communal spaces that are meant to promote social interaction and relaxation. As one moves through the spaces, a series of experiences that encourage connection is had, from the private intimacy of the pools to the public communal space offering spaces of conversation and reflection.

Through its design, this bathhouse is a new public realm one that brings people together, celebrates the rhythms of the river, and reconnects individuals to each other and to Porto’s heritage. It is not just a space for water, but for life, where the flow of people and experiences is evocative of the natural flow of land and water around them.