Leopold Banchini transforms roundabout into "intimate and communal" public bathhouse

Swiss studio Leopold Banchini Architects has turned an existing fountain on a main road in Logroño, Spain, into a temporary bathhouse as part of the Concentrico festival.

Named Round About Baths, the temporary bathhouse and steam room was built on a semi-circular fountain surrounded by a roundabout in Plaza Salón near Logroño's city centre.

Informed by 19th-century public baths, the studio built a timber structure directly onto of the fountain to fully enclose the existing water basin.

This basin now acts as an open-air communal bath, while changing rooms and a steam room were built alongside it.

"Round About Baths is a temporary public building transforming an impersonal and inaccessible fountain trapped at the centre of relentless traffic into an intimate and communal experience where undressed bodies meet in water," said the studio.

"Pride of the 19th century's social movements promoting public hygiene for the working class, urban public baths have slowly closed their doors to be unsurprisingly replaced by private and commercial 'wellness centres', mirrors of our times."

To create the enclosed space, the studio built a simple structure from timber that follows the outline of the fountain.

Attached to the timber structure were panels made from uncut timber, which form high walls to block out the surrounding traffic.

These panels also enclose the changing areas and the steam room, which was built around an open fire. A chimney rising above the steam room was also wrapped in matching grey panels.

After the festival, the panels will be reused, while according to the studio, the "fountain itself will return to its uselessness".

The studio hopes that the bathhouse, which was crated for the 10th-anniversary edition of the Concentrico design festival, will demonstrate how spaces within car-centric cities can find more interesting public uses.

"Combining changing rooms, steam rooms, and cold-water basins, Roundabout Baths offers privacy while occupying a central point in the city," said Leopold Banchini Architects.

"The temporary public program reveals the hidden potential of a car-dominated urban environment, hacking street equipment and transforming our perception of these forgotten spaces."

Based in Geneva, Leopold Banchini Architects was founded by Leopold Banchini in 2017. Recent projects by the studio include a textile factory in Bahrain, a wooden shack perched above an Australian creek and a home raised on stilts alongside a railway in Switzerland.

The photography is by Gregori Civera.

Concéntrico 11 takes place from 19 to 24 June 2025 at various locations across Logroño, Spain. See Dezeen Events Guide for more events taking place elsewhere around the world.

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