The bathing unit, BAD bath, installed at the Solitude Palace Gardens in Stuttgart attracts passersby by provoking curiosity with its strange exterior, but after investigating the unit’s background, its ingenuity surfaces and it can be truly admired. The project was put together by SMAQ, a Berlin-based collaborative studio for architecture, urbanism and research. The founders, Sabine Müller and Andreas Quednau, designed the installation, showing refined design skills and a deep understanding for the urban phenomena. The studio proposed an alternative self- generated form of leisure that works within the frame of sustainability to create an environmentally conscious design that is not only a functional bathing unit but also a public landmark.

The bath’s base consists of a 1,000-meter garden hose, which is plugged into the existing infrastructure network via a hydrant. The bath carries enough water to fill a tub for two people. Arranged in countless loops, the elastic garden hose forms the surface of a screen that catches the sun, which in turn heats the water in the hose. Not only does it save energy by heating the water via the sun but it also reuses the water by irrigating the surrounding greenery instead of it being disposed into the sewer system.

The installation is sensible, fitting seamlessly into its surroundings and supporting the urban design theory, which deals with the design and management of public spaces and its focus on improving the public’s environment and enhancing human life rather than just designing a work of pure architectural art.