In December 2024, the Badhütte in Rorschach burned down. Built in 1924, it was the last Kastenbad on Lake Constance: a wooden bathing hut standing on piles in the lake. For generations, it was a landmark, a meeting place, and a rare direct access to the water.
The immediate reaction, especially from the older generation, was a strong call for a one-to-one reconstruction. Yet closer investigation revealed a far more complex situation: structural issues predating the fire, financial and legal uncertainties, heritage constraints, and political processes that, in Switzerland, can take decades. At the same time, bathing culture has changed. Public baths today face density pressure, high maintenance costs, and new expectations for openness, flexibility, and year-round use. Rebuilding the Badhütte exactly as it was would not respond to these realities.
This project proposes a different response. Instead of leaving the site empty for years or reproducing the past, Rorschach Adrift introduces a temporary wooden floating structure built around the remaining foundations. It restores access to the lake immediately, adapts to contemporary bathing practices, and bridges long planning and negotiation processes.
The design is based on simple, modular rafts that host different bathing activities — arriving, changing, gathering, resting, immersing, and swimming. Arranged around a central void, they preserve the spatial memory of the former hut without rebuilding it. When a permanent solution is eventually defined, the rafts do not disappear. They can be reassembled along the lakeshore, activating overlooked or inaccessible places.
The temporary becomes permanent in fragments. Not as a replica, but as a living continuation of bathing culture - open to change, memory, and future use.
