Architecture as the receptacle of Mitsein

This chapter examines the Thermal Baths at Vals in Switzerland by Peter Zumthor, which in many ways serves as a contemporary 'response' to the kind of historical situations as Alberti's Certame in Santa Maria del Fiore. In this investigation, the chapter have tried to elucidate how the Heideggerian concept of Mitsein, with its various philosophical interpretations and disputations, provides a lens for examining Sennett's thesis of cooperation in the modern age and its spatial/architectural implications. By fostering such a philosophical dialogue, architecture has the capacity to open up a field of potential situations where relationships between fellow beings is contingent upon our capacity to relate to the world as it is represented or circumscribed by a visual horizon or territory. The two case studies examined in this chapter speak of how such an understanding was addressed ritually, topographically and architecturally during two very different periods in history.