Pesterzsébet Thermal And Open-Air Bath

The significant thermal and medicinal water supplies of Budapest has provided a unique opportunity throughout history for the emergence of various bathing cultures. The Pesterzsébet Bath tries to orientate between the layers stacked on top of each other, both in space design, in the use of materials and in mass formation.

The Pesterzsébet Thermal and Open-Air Bath is located in the south of Budapest, on the riverside of the Ráckeve-Danube. During the current renovation and expansion, new features such as the sauna world, swimming pool, children’s pool, diving pools and outdoor pools have been added to the existing open-air bath and “pseudo-turkish bath”. As a result, the new building complex puts the existing values in a new context, creates an active relationship with the natural environment and welcomes guests all year around.

It was especially important for us to create a unique atmosphere, that refers to the historical baths and has an individual character at the same time. Mass formation and spatial organisation were subordinate to this atmosphere, so came to existence the interwoven world of the bath. We paid special attention to the use of materials, natural and artificial lights and relations of indoor and outdoor and to the water itself. The existing dome space and the new wellness pool bears with special importance. These are like to centres in our concept, organizing every other function around them.
It was important to contact with nature, so we placed indoor and outdoor thermal pools next to the Danube with large glass openings and skylights above the essential spaces like changing room, and thermal pools.
The whole object uses the waste heat of the thermal water for the heating system and solar panels added to this system on the top of the roof structure.

The concept of the object was to use simple but timeless materials and both water and light were considered matterials. And through materials we formed atmosphere of the barh. So the two basic materials ware the granite stone cover and the thermal water. We added colorful shiny tiles to the design to highlight the reflections of the natural and artifical lights. The changing room has a special structure made of semi trasparent U-glass walls to recall the atmosphere of the thermal water not only sensually but also emotionally.
The structure of the whole object is made of concrete columns and walls supplemented with steel structures of the large openings. It was important to form outdoor spaces coverd with roofs, so the building has some special structures realized as console strustures.