Communal Bathing

"Bathing routines are cultural rituals, architectural forms, and natural environments combined to make arts of living out of everyday necessity."

The bathing tradition involves a history characterised by a communal experience. In the context of Sydney, at least, communal bathhouses are few and far between. Yet as Sydney-siders, we pride ourselves on our beautiful public beaches, which in fact, along with natural landscapes of rivers and lakes, are the sites of the earliest forms of communal bathing. 

We cherish the days at the waterside relaxing with friends and family; the notion of wellbeing associated with bathing extends to the state of social and mental wellbeing when experienced in a communal setting.

We at Capybara Bathing wish to pull the unfamiliar, misunderstood, and curiosities of traditional communal bathing into our contemporary lives, in the trust that your experience at Capybara will evoke a ritualistic enjoyment through a shared mindfulness to those with, and around you.

While beaches are highly public, we form a distinction of being not public, but a community space. The space we seek is also not a closed-door lined corridor adorned with "no talking" signs. The sensations created by the communal bathing experience raise a heightened awareness of not only our own bodies, but also those of others. This distinction of a community space arises from the shared purpose among bathhouse users; aligned in the commonality of body, mind and social wellbeing.

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Text Sources:

Christie Pearson

"The Architecture of Bathing: Body, Landscape, Art"

The MIT Press (2020)

Image Source:

Jon Koko