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A study from the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability found that spending 20–30 minutes in nature is optimal for lowering levels of the stress hormone cortisol, making biophilic design and outdoor spaces an increasingly essential factor when it comes to wellness.
By Catharine Nicol
“Serenity” is seldom used in relation to technology, but designers are increasingly using new innovations to drive guests’ all-important results
The Royal Suite at Lefay Resort & SPA Lago di Garda comes complete with its own infinity pool. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
Spa Suites at Lefay Resort & SPA Dolomiti feature a private whirlpool, shower, and sauna, in addition to a calming material palette. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
A sculpture marks The White Tiger, one of five energy healing stations in the Dolomiti resort’s sauna area. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
The Royal Suite at Lefay Resort & SPA Lago di Garda comes complete with its own infinity pool. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
Spa Suites at Lefay Resort & SPA Dolomiti feature a private whirlpool, shower, and sauna, in addition to a calming material palette. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
A sculpture marks The White Tiger, one of five energy healing stations in the Dolomiti resort’s sauna area. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
Speaking at a recent Global Wellness Institute webinar, Alberto Apostoli, the architect and spa designer behind Lefay Resort & SPA Dolomiti, reminded us that “nature is the mother of all wellness.”
This truism holds throughout the spa world, and is perhaps epitomized by The Spa at Carden Park Hotel in Cheshire, where guests relax outdoors in the Spa Garden by day and stargaze from a hot pool by night. “We’re seeing a bigger trend in the UK and Europe for spas that have large outdoor spaces incorporated as part of their design,” says Graeme Banks, Design Director at Barr + Wray, which worked on the project.
Guests can dine in nature at Lefay Resort & SPA Lago di Garda. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
Ingenhoven Architects employed sleek wood and white walls to unite the clinical and the cozy at Lanserhof at the Arts Club, seen here in the guest changing room. Image courtesy of Lanserhof at the Arts Club
Guests can dine in nature at Lefay Resort & SPA Lago di Garda. Image courtesy of Lefay Resorts
Ingenhoven Architects employed sleek wood and white walls to unite the clinical and the cozy at Lanserhof at the Arts Club, seen here in the guest changing room. Image courtesy of Lanserhof at the Arts Club
Elements of the trend are not new: Europe’s thermal spas have used water to ease the muscles and the mind for decades. The Therme Vals (now an ESPA spa renamed 7132 Thermal Baths) spa in Switzerland, designed by Pritzker Prize laureate Peter Zumthor and completed in 1996, features spectacular indoor and outdoor pools, as well as facilities offering fire and ice, and artistic plays of light and shadow bounded by walls of layered local quartzite. The space can be seen as a modern-day blueprint for wellness design: Indeed, many of Switzerland’s iconic medical spas are veering away from the traditional and clinical and toward raw local materials that lend themselves to rejuvenation. The Dolder Grand in Zurich, for example, underwent a redesign by Foster + Partners that now includes an innovative spa wing housing an otherworldly center designed by Sylvia Sepielli of SPAd, complete with myriad hydrotherapy options.
An urban location may be a challenge for those looking for (or providing) revitalization, but not so for the recently launched Lanserhof at The Arts Club in London. The six-floor former Dover Street Market building has been transformed into a sleek space for Dr F. X. Mayr’s fasting, detox and sports science concept. “Uniting the clinical and the cozy is a major challenge for the design,” says the project’s architect Christoph Ingenhoven of Ingenhoven Architects, who used soft velvet and pale colors in the lounge and sleek wood and white walls in treatment rooms; he also points out that the brand’s use of the highest-quality equipment brings a serenity of its own.
The Dolder Grand’s spa wing includes this otherworldly indoor pool as part of its Aqua Zone. Image by Peter Hebeisen
Cutting-edge technology at Lanserhof’s London outpost includes the ICAROS Health, a machine that uses virtual reality to help improve total body strength. Image courtesy of Lanserhof at the Arts Club
The Spa at Carden Park offers guests full immersion in nature. Image courtesy of Carden Park Hotel
The Dolder Grand’s spa wing includes this otherworldly indoor pool as part of its Aqua Zone. Image by Peter Hebeisen
Cutting-edge technology at Lanserhof’s London outpost includes the ICAROS Health, a machine that uses virtual reality to help improve total body strength. Image courtesy of Lanserhof at the Arts Club
The Spa at Carden Park offers guests full immersion in nature. Image courtesy of Carden Park Hotel
“Serenity” is seldom used in relation to technology, but designers are increasingly using new innovations to drive guests’ all-important results. Trackers are evolving from merely measuring to responding, and may allow a guest to hook up to a screen displaying clouds in the sky, for example, then consciously and mindfully slow their pulse in order to move the clouds away. They could be doing this while lying on a HOGO bed, which purports to absorb electromagnetic pollution, decreasing their biological age and stress as they relax. Technology has also allowed for the development of Krion, a material traditionally used in operating theaters that eliminates mold and microorganisms while purifying the air, making it an ideal material for a post-COVID-19 spa experience.
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