Bringing the Baths Back to Sligo
My intention for the Batchelors Building is to create a hotel where the concept focuses on bringing the natural baths back to Sligo. The sleek and contemporary design explores the spatial paradoxes: relationship between solid and liquid, mass opposing the void, and through materiality really focuses on the senses, to create sets of ambient baths in carved spaces. Users are invited to wayfind their oasis for relaxation, guided by arcades and through archways, experiencing only hints of what lays beyond, and always seduced into exploration of the spaces both through horizontal and vertical access routes. Whether it’s the experience of warm, relaxing baths, or awakening plunge pools; movement along the sets of monumental staircases; or the tranquillity of the rooms, their spaces wrapping around the cores and opening towards the views of spectacular Yeats country; the hotel can be experienced like a fable, one story at a time. Plunged into the muted tonal area, the visitor is encouraged to breathe and focus on relaxation while on a weekend stay.
