This project challenges its occupants to come to terms with a malfunctioning space. The program juxtaposes the most public and the private spaces of a house, it is an invitation to start with an open bathing space on the edge of a corridor. In this unpredictable combination of spaces, unexpected phenomenon: rain water mixes with the water from the shower, cold winter air flows along the hot bath steam letting the exterior space leak in. The irrational program is complemented by a series of absurd elements: a stair ascending nowhere, a non-load-bearing cantilever column disattached from the ground, a lamp buried in the mass of its wall creating a dimly lit interior. rinsing ruins is incremental to conventional needs and regulations of a housing project. Yet despite the insanity, absurdity and discomfort, inhabitants find ways of living by misappropriating the conventions of its space.

Harvard GSD
LP Architects

rinsing ruins