Plan_b is a project which questions current architectural trends within the City of Liverpool. The selected site is located in the heart of the city, which has been earmarked for commercial retail development, under the title “Central Village”. Our thesis questions and counteracts the generic nature of such a proposal, providing alternative living, working and playing experiences within the urban context.
The primary building component of our scheme deals with the reinvention of an architectural typology which once existed within the city yet became dormant over time. The proposed bath house promotes ulterior spatial qualities which are juxtaposed to the existing city fabric. It also disrupts current urban rituals, providing a new, social based alternative to the city condition.
The building is both specific and generic in nature, allowing for differing appropriations to take place depending on the site or city of its habitants. It is weaved into existing fabric, parasitic in nature, exposing and reinventing what was disused, dilapidated built form.
A coherent project axiom allowed freedom in design and expression whilst addressing existing site constraints and opportunities. A part of this axiom states that ‘spatial qualities induce and stimulated emotion’. From this, a range of different spatial configurations and places were explored and martialised throughout the scheme.By focusing upon a range of different spatial interventions we set out to achieve our project aims and objectives of destabilising current urban rituals.