Over the past weekend we welcomed the public to our London studio as part of Open House Festival.

This coincided with the opening of our exhibition, Common Waters: An Exploration of Social Bathing. The exhibition illustrates the history, revival and future of social bathing in the UK through archival photography, drawings, objects and publications. Works on display consider the bathhouse not simply as a place of hygiene or recreation, but as a civic space; somewhere to meet, pause, recover and experience water collectively.

At the centre of the exhibition is a new bathhouse proposal for Bankside, London, by Tuckey Design Studio, developed with Jane Withers Studio. The project asks what a permanent publicly operated bathhouse might mean in a city where access to water is increasingly shaped by climate change and the pressures of urban life. It proposes bathing as a form of shared infrastructure, one that can support physical, spiritual and social well-being while creating new relationships with the city and its waterways. The illustration to this project was recently on display at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition.

Common Waters: An Exploration of Social Bathing will reopen on Wednesday 14th October alongside a panel discussion, featuring bathing experts in conversation with Jonathan Tuckey. For more information and to book your free ticket please visit buildingonthebuilt.com

Many thanks to everyone who attended Open House and making it such a great success! It’s always a joy to open our studio doors to the public and be part of such fascinating conversations.