Safe Haven Bath house / TYIN Tegnestue

Jul 2009

Uploaded by Nico Saieh — Filed under: Featured ,Infrastructure ,Selected , Thailand, TYIN Tegnestue, Wood

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Architects: TYIN Tegnestue
Location: Ban Tha Song Yang, Thailand
Project team: Andreas Grøntvedt Gjertsen, Yashar Hanstad
Client: Safe Haven Orphanage
Budget: 22.500 NOK (Approx. 3,300 USD)
Project year: January 2009
Photographs: Pasi Aalto

TYIN tegnestue is a non-profit organization working humanitarian through architecture. TYIN is run by five architect students from NTNU and the projects are financed by more than 60 Norwegian companies, as well as private contributions.

Through the course of the last year TYIN has worked with planning and constructing small scale projects in Thailand. We aim to build strategic projects that can improve the lives for people in difficult situations. Through extensive collaboration with locals, and mutual learning, we hope that our projects can have an impact beyond the physical structures.The new bathhouse covers basic needs like toilets, personal hygiene and laundry. A simple structure was already built and became the framework for the project.

Project Description

The most intimate functions are located in the two separate parts of plastered concrete blocks. In the central area you find a space for bathing that opens up towards the vast teak plantation. The bathing area is only partly privatized, adapted to Karen culture. A tilted facade of bamboo covers the front of the building and creates a passage, tying the functions together.

A great challenge in this project is that sewage and drainage had to be dealt with on-site and handle large amounts of water during the rainy season. The waste from the toilets passes through pipes into buried. Concrete tanks that are drained from the bottom and sides. Gravel and wooden floors are easy to keep clean and dry, and all wet rooms are drained by using layers of stone and gravel.

The existing sanitary facilities at Safe Haven Orphanage, as well in the district in general, are narrow, dark and have concrete flooring that accumulates water and dirt. With this bathhouse we have tried alternative solutions that hopefully will be an important asset in the future development in the district. The climate of northern Thailand makes good personal hygiene essential to prevent diseases, especially for small children. With this bathhouse TYIN wanted to create well functioning and dignified facility for personal hygiene.

: floor plan

Cite:
Saieh , Nico . "Safe Haven Bath house / TYIN Tegnestue" 17 Jul 2009. ArchDaily. Accessed 25 May 2012. <http://www.archdaily.com/29116>

Comments (23)
Tweets (4)
Links to this entry (12)

tchouah says:

TYIN rules

# July 17, 2009 at 08:08

Julio Fernandez says:

I like!

# July 17, 2009 at 10:12

sullka says:

THIS IS AMAZING!

Love this project, those urinals are genius!

Pretty resourceful, this has to be the most ‘green’ project ever, not only arch. but for everything it encompasses.

LEED learn from this.

Paraphrasing Murcutt : “any technological solution, to an environmental problem, is a wrong solution”

# July 17, 2009 at 10:45

Andrew says:

68,000 NOK is 10,652 U.S. dollars!

# July 17, 2009 at 10:54

Nico Saieh says:

Andrew,

You’re right! That was my mistake, it’s 22,500 NOK.
Sorry about that

# July 17, 2009 at 11:26

INawe says:

Awesome

# July 17, 2009 at 13:04

Richie says:

This is admirable, good work guys.

# July 17, 2009 at 13:27

breeree says:

Well said sullka.
A great project, hopefully we see more like this here!

# July 17, 2009 at 22:01

corian says:

it is good

# July 20, 2009 at 07:47

sirisha bysani says:

good one

# July 20, 2009 at 08:21

elver says:

common sense at its best!

# July 20, 2009 at 11:25

PlaceAndBeing says:

how resourceful! especially like the natural light spilling in through bamboo shades. the project is efficient and effective.

# July 23, 2009 at 03:17

dtdayan says:

everything simple and makes sense. Unlike the wasteful forms by libeskind.

# July 23, 2009 at 03:53

Ling says:

How’s interesting?

Are you admired because this is a cool architecture or something which build by someone in the sympathetic place?

# July 28, 2009 at 03:16

sympathetic place? i am just curious of what you see in architecture in general because you sound skeptical of a truly useful building. how often do you see projects that honestly respond to the necessities of people and place with respectable balance between economical, social, and sustainable values? besides i think this project has great spatial quality with no waste of form, meaning and materials. we need more architects that design as a way of problem solving. unlike libeskind’s buildings that are good for nothing.. you can call it art, you can call it innovation, but you have to agree that its not the best way to spend money

# August 12, 2009 at 05:30

Santiago says:

Is a big project. They works with the mind and the children are smiling.

congratulation

# July 30, 2009 at 12:10

JP from Dallas says:

Good job guys…

# August 12, 2009 at 18:34

Mario Estay says:

…and good idea guys….this is admirable work …

# August 22, 2009 at 12:52

Paulo says:

Keep on doing great projects! Congratulations!

# August 28, 2009 at 23:42

1GR3 says:

i think that compost toilets would be much healthier solution then wasting water on prolonging a life of fecal bacteria…

# September 3, 2009 at 08:24

CJCM says:

I agree, composting would be ideal but it has its challenges too.

Compost toilets would be feasible if there is a dedicated person who takes the time to do the composting work (which is quite demanding).

I assume in this orphanage there is already plenty of work taking care of lots of children, feeding, washing, educating them, etc,etc. Adding the extra task of composting would add a cost that does not compensate for the benefits.

Besides, if composting is not done correctly, in a humid weather like Thailand’s it could increase diseases that could be lethal among young children.

# October 29, 2010 at 15:33

ben says: