Liepāja Thermal Bath

The dome plays a key role in countless public bath precedents, including myriad Roman, Ottoman/Turkish, and Renaissance examples. The form's semiological and organizational roles are closely aligned: by reinforcing centrality and singularity, it renders unmistakably explicit the primacy of the circle of space below.

Our proposal seeks to undermine the conventional symbolic performance of the dome by challenging its centripetal tendencies as well as its hierarchical bias. Working with its generative primitive, the sphere, we propose a multiplicity of domes, both upright and inverted, as a rhizomatic formal and organizational embodiment of a contemporary public that is democratic, horizontally empowered, and increasingly networked. Capitalizing on the seemingly serendipitous intersection of these friendly spherical forms, as well as the unique spaces between them within the poché, the project uses its sociopolitical conceptual foundation in service of an unorthodox spatial experience that is both spirited and atmospheric

Steven Christensen Architecture is an award-winning design and research platform launched by Steven Christensen, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP. Christensen is a registered architect, and he received his Master in Architecture from the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University in 2008. He has been a member of the design faculty at the University of Michigan and UCLA, and he has been an invited critic at several institutions including Harvard, SCI-Arc, USC, Woodbury, Michigan, and Cambridge.

2017 AR Future Projects Award, The Architectural Review + MIPIM: Liepāja Thermal Bath

2017 Jury Award, A+ Awards, Architizer: Liepāja Thermal Bath

2017 Special Mention, A+ Awards, Architizer: Emigration House

2017 Special Mention, A+ Awards, Architizer: Heptagon House

2016 Young Architect’s Award, The Architect’s Newspaper

2016 American Architecture Award: Liepāja Thermal Bath

2016 American Architecture Award: Bandersnatch

2016 Best of Year Honoree, Interior Design Magazine: Emigration House

2016 Architect Magazine Residential Architect Design Award (Honorable Mention): Emigration House

2016 American Architecture Prize (Silver): Liepāja Thermal Bath

2016 American Architecture Prize (Honorable Mention): Heptagon House

2016 Best of the BEST Award, IIDA Intermountain Chapter: Venafi Headquarters

2016 BEST Award, Work over 15,000 SF, IIDA Intermountain Chapter: Venafi Headquarters

2016 BEST Award, Live – Single Unit, IIDA Intermountain Chapter: Broadway Loft

2015 AZ Award of Merit, AZURE Magazine: Liepāja Thermal Bath

2015 People's Choice Award, AZURE Magazine: Liepāja Thermal Bath

2015 Architect Magazine Residential Architect Design Award: Heptagon House

2015 AIA Los Angeles NEXT LA Design Award (Citation): Bandersnatch

2015 IDA International Design Award (Gold): Liepāja Thermal Bath

2015 IDA International Design Award (Bronze): Heptagon House

2014 AIA California Council Residential Design Award (Merit) Heptagon House

2014 AIA Los Angeles NEXT LA Design Award (Merit): Heptagon House

2014 AIA Los Angeles Next LA Design Award (Citation): Liepāja Thermal Bath

2014 AIA Los Angeles NEXT LA Design Award (Citation): Pop-Up Chapel