The border between North and South Korea is not just a symbolic line dividing the two countries. It is a high tensioned zone not freely entered or explored. arch out loud is excited to announce their international open-ideas competition, Borders - The Korean Demilitarized Zone Underground Bath House, which will explore the implications of border conditions.
A bathhouse presents an opportunity to bring people into the DMZ through the only public means possible, tourism, while maintaining a linkage with the longstanding typological precedent within Korean culture. An underground bathhouse muddles the understanding of architectural object in relation to context and highlights a shifted relationship between building and landscape.
New questions of border continue to arise in contemporary geopolitics as nations grapple with the security of their borders and current global conflicts. So what can one of the longest-running border conflicts reveal about the nature and potential of borders in general?
