Exquisite Corpse

FINALIST of London Urban Retreat: Haggerston Public Baths

+ FINALIST

London Urban Retreat: Haggerston Public Baths

[7717]

Exquisite Corpse

Team

Name: Álvaro Germán Villacís Salazar

Instagram: @aqingradiente / @villacisalvaro

Nationality: Colombian

Institution / Company: Arte y Uso SAS

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Exquisite Corpse draws inspiration from the surrealist collective game Cadavre Exquis, in which multiple participants create a work in sequence without knowledge of the previous contributions. This principle of fragmented authorship and unexpected continuity is reinterpreted architecturally and deployed at an urban scale within the former Haggerston Baths.

The proposal selectively removes a large portion of the existing internal partitions while carefully preserving the structural integrity and heritage value of the historic building. This intervention reveals four generous, interconnected volumes organized along a horseshoe-shaped circulation, allowing for both sequential discovery and spatial overlap.

Within each of these spaces, a distinct landscape is grafted into the architecture: perpetual snowfields, open meadows, arid deserts, and rugged Rocky Mountains. These inserted environments are not scenography backdrops but immersive spatial conditions, each with its own climatic, material, and experiential logic.

The resulting ensemble operates as an architectural exquisite corpse—a deliberate juxtaposition of disparate landscapes and spatial proportions that produces moments of surprise, contrast, and continuity. The project functions as a contemporary indoor park, offering an escape into exotic and even antipodal natures while remaining entirely within the dense urban fabric of London.

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Jury Comments

– Josefine Fokdal

Brings nature into the building. It is lacking the context of a old bathhouse and ignores the surraounding context.