The stability of architecture is weakened nowadays. The photographic work Absence of Water reveals the transformations and ephemeral nature of our lifestyles and the places where we spend our time. The images capture the decline of public swimming baths in the United Kingdom. It portrays pools built in different English cities from the beginning of the Twentieth Century and now abandoned. With the lavish details of their architecture, these baths reveal the optimism and aspirations of Victorian society. They contain memories of full collective well-being. These buildings became uneconomical to run and have been left vacant over recent decades, following a significant decrease of visitors preferring more modern possibilities: low-cost holidays, other sports activities and ways to socialize related to the development of technology. Social networking, virtual communities, and today’s communication tools have changed human relations.
Today these empty, preserved outdated spaces, have lost their leisure function and don’t conform with the successive architectural practices. Representing a specific period, society, and cultural conditions, they are the lasting shreds of evidence, frozen in the continuous process of territory mutation. At the same time, the work gives us the possibility to reflect on water: on its function and the importance it has for man and society's development and growth.
Water determines the wealth, it is indispensable to live and its lack inexorably leads to ruin, exactly as happened to these pools. These architectures, through their charm, show us the time irreversible action, the ruin, the sense of emptiness that surrounds and fills them. Yet they are testimony and memory of a not too far age when they were places full of voices and laughter and the beating heart of life.

Soho Marshall Street Baths
London
dimensions 80 ft x 30 ft
max depth 7 ft 6 in
max attendance per day 130 people
opened 1931 - closed 1997 - reopened 2010

The stability of architecture is weakened nowadays. The photographic work Absence of Water reveals the transformations and ephemeral nature of our lifestyles and the places where we spend our time. The images capture the decline of public swimming baths in the United Kingdom. It portrays pools built in different English cities from the beginning of the Twentieth Century and now abandoned. With the lavish details of their architecture, these baths reveal the optimism and aspirations of Victorian society. They contain memories of full collective well-being. These buildings became uneconomical to run and have been left vacant over recent decades, following a significant decrease of visitors preferring more modern possibilities: low-cost holidays, other sports activities and ways to socialize related to the development of technology. Social networking, virtual communities and today’s communication tools have changed human relations.
Today these empty, preserved outdated spaces, have lost their leisure function and don’t conform with the successive architectural practices. Representing a specific period, society and cultural conditions, they are the lasting shreds of evidence, frozen in the continuous process of territory mutation. At the same time, the work gives us the possibility to reflect on water: on its function and the importance it has for man and society's development and growth. Water determines the wealth, it is indispensable to live and its lack inexorably leads to ruin, exactly as happened to these pools.
These architectures, through their charm, show us the time irreversible action, the ruin, the sense of emptiness that surrounds and fills them. Yet they are testimony and memory of a not too far age when they were places full of voices and laughter and the beating heart of life.

Moseley Road Baths
Birmingham
dimensions 68 ft x 36 ft
max depth 5 ft 7 in
max attendances per day 120 people
opened 1907 - closed 2003

Chadderton Baths
Oldham
dimensions 100 ft x 40 ft
max depth 7 ft
max attendance per day 160 people
opened 1937 - closed 2006

Uxbridge Lido
London
dimensions 220 ft x 80 ft
max depth 6 ft
attendance per day 200 people
opened 1935 - closed 1998 - reopened 2010

Victoria Baths
Manchester
dimensions 70 ft x 30 ft
max depth 6 ft
max attendance per day 140 people
opened 1912 - closed 2001

Park Lido
Eltham
dimensions 70 ft x 30 ft
max depth 7 ft 6 in
max attendance per day 145 people
opened 1924 - closed 1988

Fields Lido
London
dimensions 70 ft x 35 ft
max depth 6 ft
max attendance per day 180 people
opened 1932 - closed 1988 - reopened 2006

Tudor Grange Pool
Solihull
dimensions 100 ft x 40 ft
max depth 12 ft 6 in
max attendances per day 130 people
opened 1965 - closed 2008

Hornsey Road Baths
London
dimensions 85 ft x 34 ft
max depth 7 ft 6 in
max attendance per day 120 people
opened 1896 - closed 1990

Harpurhey Baths
Manchester
dimensions 65 ft x 30 ft
max depth 6 ft 6 in
max attendances per day 80 people
opened 1910 - closed 2001

Forest Hill Pools
London
dimensions 85 ft x 40 ft
max depth 6 ft 7 in
max attendances per day 120 people
opened 1885 - closed 2006

Riverside Swimming Baths
Erith
dimensions 140 ft x 40 ft
max depth 12 ft 6 inches
max attendance per day 150 people
opened 1968 - closed 2005

Stirchley Baths
Birmingham
dimensions 72 ft x 35 ft
max depth 6ft 7 in
max attendance per day 140 people
opened 1910 - closed 1988 - reopened 2016

Bristol North Baths
Bristol
dimensions 72 ft x 29 ft
max depth 6 ft
max attendance per day 120 people
opened 1922 - closed 2005