florida landscape — ryan karczewski

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florida landscape

Returning again to how the natural environment, specifically the rise and fall of tidal waters, contributes to barrier, access, and interaction across horizontal planes, this project centers itself within Florida, particularly Cedar Key and its barrier islands.

Water seemingly weaves in and out of the mangroves - both horizontally and vertically - as the tides rise and fall. However, despite the heavy presence and interactions with the tidal waters, the region lacks spaces for recreation and public bathing. To address this while using water as a focal point, the project became a public bathhouse that allows water - as tides rise and fall - to fill each room creating different levels of interaction that change throughout the day.

Horizontally, weaving became the main inspiration behind the project’s structural organization; creating a knit pattern of stacked horizontal beams - supporting both the roof and floor - interconnected with the vertical columns that influence the boundaries of each of the occupiable bathing rooms.

Vertically, as the water rises and enters the spaces through the floor, each room begins to fill up one level at a time. The pedestrian bridge at the north and the boat dock at the south are at a high enough level that they will not fill with water, allowing for two dry spaces to be separated along a further and further distance as more water fills the pools in between the two spaces.

A lthough these rooms are created specifically for bathing, the ideas of barrier and access are played with as individuals will have to swim in order to cross the now wet threshold.