There is an old Slavic saying, “If there are few banyas, we live in unity; if there are too many, we are lonely because one does not visit the other.” Public spas served as part of many cultural traditions, from Japan to Greece to several Native American tribes. They were gathering spaces integral to social and cultural life, where friendships, business deals, and political decisions were sealed.
Archimedes Banya aims to enhance the creative and diverse cultural life that already exists in San Francisco. Its namesake, Archimedes, was a Greek mathematician whom the king had tasked with determining whether his crown was made of pure gold or whether the craftsman had stolen some of the gold for himself. An idea hit Archimedes as he jumped into the bathtub. He could weigh the crown by dunking it in water
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