Water Whirl
Date: 2017
Status: Competition - Runner Up
Location: Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea
Program: Shared / Men's / Women's Spas, Restaurant, Cinema / Seminar, Fitness, Shared Spa, Fomentation Rooms, Sleeping Rooms. Children's Waterpark, Games / Entertainment and Central Pool
Size: 9900m2
Team: Jessie Andjelic, Philip Vandermey, David Schiwy, Yanja Tumurbaatar, Vincent Cheng
Model: Adam Scales and Sybren Woudstra
The addition of a bathhouse introduces leisure activities within the militarized buffer zone and ecological sanctuary of the DMZ.
Water Whirl takes two existing spatial conditions - firstly the void of the DMZ, a space across which transgressions, propaganda, posturing and political relations are constantly played out, and, secondly, the highly charged negotiation spaces within the blue meeting houses in the JSA / Panmunjom - and reinterprets them into an architectural machine that uses playful spatial devices towards productive interaction and reconciliation. Using the expanded functions of a large Jimjilbang enables the programmatic exuberance to provide variety and critical mass.
