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Idea by

Katharina Wittke

, Germany
After my training in carpentry at the Art Department Studio Babelsberg I studied architecture at the Bauhaus-University in Weimar, where I graduated in 2018. Afterwards I decided to extend my work-field by attending the master’s program in Urban Studies at BUW. Next to my academic practice, I work on the intersection between architectural conception and 1-to-1-projects by implementing experimental spaces as craftswoman.

Call for ideas 2020

Red Bathhouse-Bridge for Kannawurf


Infrastructural intervention for the social re-birth of a riverside in rural Thuringia, Germany

Red Bathhouse-Bridge for Kannawurf


Infrastructural intervention for the social re-birth of a riverside in rural Thuringia, Germany
Crossing, swimming, boating, shelter: a bridge as diversified social space for rural riverside-routines
File under
Type of project
  • Site-specific cases

Today we face a highly segregated landscape with monofunctional areas for agriculture, infra-structure, and energy production, in which the human became a disruptive element. As a mayor effect of this efficiency-driven land use, waterways have become dysfunctional and inaccessible for locals and daily routines in the rural. In Kannawurf, a village in Thurin-gia/Germany, the river disappeared visually and mentally behind the steep embankments after straightening it in favour of new ground and technocratic flood protection. Photos from the vil-lager’s archive inspired me to recapture this abandoned habitat to stabilize a crucial aspect of life in the rural: the immediacy to nature and our livelihood water. Therefore, I propose an in-tervention at a place, where a bridge collapsed half a century ago. The inner body of the new bridge unfolds as a bathhouse with platforms to explore the river at all levels, inviting locals and visitors to swim, go boating, fishing, gathering or even camp.

Red Bathhouse-bridge from a distance.

Inner structure with platforms and stairways.

Elevation & section showing the vertical transition along the inner body of the bridge.

Floor plan with the structural grid of the wooden construction.

1_Site plan of the intervention at the border of the village
2_Elevation & section
3_Structural detail

Red Bathhouse-Bridge for Kannawurf


Infrastructural intervention for the social re-birth of a riverside in rural Thuringia, Germany

Red Bathhouse-Bridge for Kannawurf


Infrastructural intervention for the social re-birth of a riverside in rural Thuringia, Germany
Crossing, swimming, boating, shelter: a bridge as diversified social space for rural riverside-routines
File under
Type of project
  • Site-specific cases

Today we face a highly segregated landscape with monofunctional areas for agriculture, infra-structure, and energy production, in which the human became a disruptive element. As a mayor effect of this efficiency-driven land use, waterways have become dysfunctional and inaccessible for locals and daily routines in the rural. In Kannawurf, a village in Thurin-gia/Germany, the river disappeared visually and mentally behind the steep embankments after straightening it in favour of new ground and technocratic flood protection. Photos from the vil-lager’s archive inspired me to recapture this abandoned habitat to stabilize a crucial aspect of life in the rural: the immediacy to nature and our livelihood water. Therefore, I propose an in-tervention at a place, where a bridge collapsed half a century ago. The inner body of the new bridge unfolds as a bathhouse with platforms to explore the river at all levels, inviting locals and visitors to swim, go boating, fishing, gathering or even camp.

Red Bathhouse-bridge from a distance.

Inner structure with platforms and stairways.

Elevation & section showing the vertical transition along the inner body of the bridge.

Floor plan with the structural grid of the wooden construction.

1_Site plan of the intervention at the border of the village
2_Elevation & section
3_Structural detail

Idea by

Katharina Wittke
Germany
After my training in carpentry at the Art Department Studio Babelsberg I studied architecture at the Bauhaus-University in Weimar, where I graduated in 2018. Afterwards I decided to extend my work-field by attending the master’s program in Urban Studies at BUW. Next to my academic practice, I work on the intersection between architectural conception and 1-to-1-projects by implementing experimental spaces as craftswoman.
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