Project Description
2008 RADA
Bath / Grand
“Poetic and transformative” is how the jury described this bathroom. The 8-foot-by-8-foot cube elevates the discussion of what this necessary room should and can be, they said. Placed inside a historic warehouse formerly used for repairing and storing fishing nets, the cube is constructed of Douglas fir salvaged from an old dock on the property. Gaps left between the feather-butted planks honor the old warehouse building, which seasonally shows cracks in its weathered exterior.
Inside the bathroom, a hole in the floor architect Daren Doss, AIA, calls a “river light” reveals views of the water below. At night, he says, the salmon are attracted to the bathroom light and congregate beneath the hole. The rest of the floor, the wet wall, and the vanity are fabricated of brushed aluminum. Acrylic panels line the wood skin for acoustical privacy, while letting the light shine through.
“We wanted to express the materials as poetry,” Doss says, “by letting them be raw but using them in unusual ways.”