The European history of bath has its roots in the Greek culture about 2500 years ago. In every Greek town was situated at least one center of culture, a gymnasium, that contained bath establishements, areas for physical training, restaurants, librarys and readingrooms. Already 400 B.C. Hippokrates, founder of the art of healing, spoke for the waters important qualities in medical treatements. After the Greeks the Romans overtook and maintained the polished manners of bathing, and thanks to them the culture spread to the north of Europe. During the middleages the art of swimming was well respected among soldiers and knights, and was frequently practised in tournament games and competitions. At the same time the bathhouses were developed in the towns of Europe.

Background: The design industry is relatively immature in Sweden but large on the international market, where companies have used services from industrial design firms for a long time. Companies incresignly realise that design is an efficient mean to gain competitive advantages on the market. Several design companies fancy growth and to receive a wider market share to expand on the international market. One of them is Design Communicaton who has made a couple of acquisitions, to receive wider comptences and to cover different segments. That has lead to an increased brand portfolio with different subbrands, which can be complicated to handle efficiently in the internal and external communication.

Accessibility is today a topic of high current interest. It is a requirement for equality and a democracy question. By the year 2010, easy measured hindrances in all of Sweden's municipalities should be cleared away; this is stated in Swedish law. The physical accessibility to our public places is particularly important for functionally disabled people since it affects their possibilities to be outdoors and also their participation in society. When designing these places, it is difficult to find solutions that fit everybody, especially since good accessibility not only should fulfill all physical requirements of accessibility but also values of experience.

Vi säger att du äger ett företag som i sin tur har ett dotterbolag. Företaget tillverkar cykelhjälmar. Låt säga att det arbetar 10 personer i dotterbolaget, bolaget köptes en gång upp för att det besatt kunskap om hur man tillverkar säkra cykelhjälmar. Då dåliga tider varar tvingas ditt företag sälja dotterbolaget. Dotterbolaget som det senaste gått dåligt värderas i synnerhet efter den kunskap de besitter, det vill säga den personliga kompetens som det 10 arbetande besitter och det system och tekniker som används för att framställa dessa supersäkra hjälmar.

Competing is a well established work model among Swedisharchitects as well as in the international architect work force.Through this study we set out to get better acquainted with thiswork model in theory and in practice, and to hopefully gainknowledge that will be of use to us and to others working in thefield of architecture.Techniques, materials as well as the artistic expression ofcontemporary architecture is international and today?s architectsoperate on a global labour market. Architects often commit to workon assignments far away from where they are based. Therefore,to physically visit the site of interest may be time consuming,expensive as well as harmful to the environment. Is it possible fora designer to accomplish relevant proposals on how to develop andimprove a place that he or she has never visited? May there evenbe situations in which the outsiders point of view is preferable?These are questions that we aim to investigate, and we do sothrough participation in an international design competition.