New York practices Studio MRDO and Studio LaM have have won an ideas competition with their proposal for a theatrical underground pool set in the Demilitarised Zone between North Korea and South Korea.
Studio MRDO and Studio LaM's winning design, Crossing Parallel(s): Bathhouse as a Metaphorical Theatre, imagines a communal performance by North and South Korean participants to help relax tensions between the two territories.
The 38th parallel is a circle of latitude that sits 38 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane ? it also formed the original border between North and South Korea before the Korean War.
After the Armistice Agreement of 1953, the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) was formed as each side agreed to move their troops back 2,000 metres from the line, forming a buffer zone between the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North) and the Republic of Korea (South). Winning design: Crossing Parallel(s): Bathhouse as a Metaphorical Theatre
Architecture-research initiative Arch Out Loud organised the concept competition to reimagine this zone of political tension as an underground bathhouse, with the aim of beginning to ease friction.
The competition attracted almost 300 proposals and was judged by a panel that included architects Moon Hoon and Stan Allen.
In the winning design, double helical ramps spiralling down towards a communal pool at the bottom of an underground dome. An oculus at ground level allows natural light to shine through to the water b...