A low building on a sea cliff under an overcast sky

Hospitality · Cornwall, United Kingdom · 2020

The Tidewell Baths

Warm water, cold sea, one horizon.

Overview

The Tidewell Baths hold three pools on a granite headland: one hot, one warm and one fed by the tide. The building is low and heavy against the weather, with glass only where the horizon is.

Inside, concrete galleries step down toward the water. The light changes by the minute; the architecture keeps still.

Location: Cornwall, United Kingdom
Year: 2020
Status: Completed
Typology: Hospitality
Coordinates: 50.1188° N, 5.5373° W

Gallery

A closer look.

Two images. Select any one to see it full screen.

Drawings

Drawn to be built.

Plan, section and elevation, from the point of arrival to the sea terrace, each drawn to scale on the structural grid.

The ground floor, set out on a 6 × 5 m structural grid.30 × 15 m · 5 rooms · 450 m² ground floor

Materials

Made of few things.

Three materials, chosen at the source and left to age. Nothing is painted to look like something else.

Fair-faced Concrete
Cast once, in timber formwork we draw ourselves. The tie holes stay: they are how you read the pour.
Low-iron Glass
Without the green cast of ordinary glass, so the landscape reads true from edge to edge.
Honed Travertine
Selected in blocks at the quarry, honed and never polished. It warms in the sun and stays cool underfoot.