ROUNDABOUT BATHHOUSE
23 Jul 2025
This local swimming spot is a innovative use of public space, temporary transforming an unused void into the newest local watering hole. Located at the centre of an intersection, large wooden panels provide privacy for those enjoying the public bath, demonstrating that, with the right design and funding, public infrastructure can make the most of any area, even a roundabout.
Installed for the Concéntrico Festival in Logroño, Spain, Round About Baths is a temporary public structure designed by Leopold Banchini Architects. The project reclaims the center of a traffic roundabout, typically an inaccessible and overlooked urban void, by introducing a spatial program that reactivates the site as a space for collective bathing.
The design utilises a standard timber frame construction, with the structure clad in uncut wooden panels. These panels are intended for reuse following the festival, aligning with a strategy of material efficiency and circular use. High perimeter walls offer visual privacy while marking the intervention’s boundary within the traffic circle.
Historically, public baths were part of 19th-century efforts to improve hygiene and provide equitable access to basic infrastructure. Over time, many of these facilities were closed and replaced by private wellness centers, shifting bathing from a shared civic activity to a commercial service.
Round About Baths revisits this typology by introducing a temporary urban bathhouse composed of cold-water basins, steam rooms, and changing areas, while occupying a central point in the city.
By occupying a central, vehicular-dominated site, the project draws attention to underutilised spaces shaped by car infrastructure. Studio Leopold Banchini suggests alternative uses for urban land, particularly those spaces that are physically prominent yet functionally marginal.
Once the temporary installation is dismantled, the existing fountain and roundabout return to their previous state, though the intervention leaves a conceptual trace, proposing a new lens for interpreting public space.
Round About Baths
LOCATION Logroño, Spain
ARCHITECT Leopold Banchini Architects
PHOTOGRAPHY Gregori Civera
