TUB Park: The Utopian Bath

Husk created this project for the exhibition Brooklyn Utopias (April 5- June 24 2012 at the  Old Stone House, Brooklyn)  TUB Park — a unique park of public baths and innovative play equipment — can be enjoyed by all Brooklynites. It is the ultimate in family fun. The adult-only hot tubs in the park are constructed from re-purposed rooftop water towers, a classic Brooklyn icon. They operate on an ingeniously sustainable system that harvests rainwater. The kinetic energy produced by gravity, water, compost and children’s play does the work of pumping, filtering and heating the baths. A water wheel aerates the compost. The compost produces heat. Children’s energy, generated on state of the art play equipment, works to pump water through the system. However, what makes this park utopian is not just its renewable energy system. This park is utopian – an ideal place or state – because both the children and adults are in their ideal states. Children are at play and adults are relaxing. In our utopian vision these two states are mutually compatible and beneficial.