Hot spring pool

Contemplating and gathering

Hot spring pool

Ancestralthermal springs · thermal baths · onsen (Japanese) · poza termal (Spanish)

national parkvolcanic areapublic bathhousehealth centercommunal space

A natural or built pool that receives hot water of volcanic or deep origin for bathing. It can be outdoors among stones or inside a bathhouse.

Solves

What it solves

It offers a place for the body to rest and for quiet conversation. From the Roman baths to the Japanese onsen, bathing together has been a way of meeting and of caring for oneself.

Today

Measure the water temperature and mix or cool it before it reaches the pool, because near volcanoes it can be almost boiling. Provide stone edges to sit on, a shower beforehand, steps with a handrail and shade from trees.

Common mistake

Enclosing the pool in concrete and roofs with no view or air, or neglecting the renewal of the water until it becomes a health risk.

Tomorrow

The same heat from the earth can feed the pool and heat water for the site. Ramped edges, handrails and stepped depths open the pool to older people and families with children.

Fact In Japan the law considers onsen any mineral water that springs at 25 °C or more with defined minerals.

Where it comes from

  • 1Roman baths Roman Empire, Imperial period
    Public baths led from the warm room to the hot and the cold rooms, with libraries and places to eat and talk.
  • 2Onsen Japan, at least 1,300 years ago
    First sacred and healing, from the Edo period it became a bath for ordinary people to meet, with the open-air bath, called rotenburo, as a traditional form.
  • 3Mesoamerican temazcal Mexico and Central America, pre-Hispanic period, in use
    A steam bath with hot volcanic stones used to heal and cleanse the body, documented at sites such as Palenque.
  • 4Costa Rican hot springs Costa Rica, since pre-Columbian times
    Hot springs linked to volcanoes and faults have been known since before the colonial period and today are used mainly for recreation and tourism.

Masters

  • Peter Zumthor Therme Vals, Graubünden, Switzerland, 1996
    He built the baths over a thermal spring with layers of local stone, alternating a large pool with small, intimate rooms. He teaches how stone, water, light and temperature combine for calm bathing.

Appears in the routes

Sources

See also

Also in Contemplating and gathering

Diagrams and texts by LDB Arquitectura. They are shared under the CC BY 4.0 license, which allows them to be used and adapted with credit to the source.