description of precedent (work in progress)

Therme Vals, Peter Zumthor

You open the glass door and step through it. Immediately the moist air fills your lungs and you’re aware of the wetness of this place.

You scan your token and enter the long hallway, water streams down the right wall. Stains recalling the path it gravity has forced it to take. Reminding you that this building in which everything is at a perfect 90 degree angle is in fact part of nature, subject to its wear, time, and its power.

You enter the changing room, the quality of the wood beckons you to touch it, but the high gloss lacquer removes any sort of tactile quality the wood once had.

You spread open the heavy leather curtains and are immediately hit with the sound of the people.

People inhabiting the space, splashing, enjoying, relaxing? The noise forces you to question the sanctity of the space.

You walk down the steps, the smoothness of the stone on the floor is like nothing you’re foot has touched in a while, maybe ever.

Water pools on the floor, the cracks in the floor are so precise. They mimic the cracks in the roof, which with the same precision are letting light into the main chamber.

You drape your towel on a simple brass rod, nothing about the rod is telling you what its for but yet there’s no question you’re plush, soft towel needs to grace the gentle rounded shape of the cold, hard metal.

You step into the main pool, your feet feeling the stone beginning to give after years of people walking up and down these steps. The water is warm, light is bouncing up and down around and around the room.

It’s 2 o clock. The soft glow of the light spilling into the space through the cracks gives way to a opening. The glass barely visible, detailed to the point of invisibility. You don’t understand the view, but it’s beautiful nonetheless.

There are dark rooms, you don’t go in them.

To the right there is a room with people running out of it, screaming. You gather it’s the cold room.

You avoid that one.

To the left you glance into a red chamber. The red on the walls invited you into its 38 degree waters. You sit and gather your thoughts. The white fine pebbles that line pool give the water a whiting glow, contrasting with the redish orange walls. Creating the dynamism of a fire.

You are in the fire. It’s beyond relaxing.

Minutes go by. Your body is tired from the heat. You slowly wade through the water, out of the chamber your body is compressed by the smallish, narrow opening you must go through to exit.