Ecaterina Stefanescu
Interiors Buildings Cities
The Imaginary History of the Lost Bathhouse of Maastricht
Imagining the ruins of a Roman bathhouse on a forgotten river site in Maastricht, the project reflects on the idea of authenticity and manipulation of history in architecture. The building, imagined as a ruin, is a meditation on the role of ruins in architecture and on how the Roman ritual of bathing can be interpreted in contemporary times. The new bathhouse forges a dialogue between the new and the fake-old, and the baths and the Jeker river, through a system of layering that aims to mitigate the scale and solidity of the ruin with the tactile, intimate spaces for bathing. The the of the festive is manifested in the programme of pleasure and in the reinterpretation and fantastical recreation of the ancient Roman past of Maastricht.