http://www.therme-vals.ch/
«Mountain, stone, water - building in the stone, building with stone, into the mountain, building out of the mountain, being inside the mountain - how can the implications and the sensuality in the association of these words be interpreted, architecturally? The whole concept was designed by following up these questions; so that it all took form step by step.»
Peter Zumthor
MATERIAL AND PRESENCE
The architecture of the spa complex
from Peter Zumthor
The new thermal spa, formally opened in December 1996 and already listed by the Canton Graubünden as a protected building in 1998, is a self-willed construction set into the mountain slope. It replaced the bathing facilities of the hydro hotel (built between 1962 and 1970) which were too cramped and in need of repair. The new separate spa building is built in Valser gneiss. Stone by stone. A massive element set in to the gradient of the slope and dovetailed with the flank of the mountain. The great slabs of the roof are grassed over: sections of flower studded alpine meadow.
The architectonic language of the new spa has nothing to do with the design of the hotel complex built in the sixties. It is more profound underlining the essential in the context of a new interpretation of the constructional challenge; emphasising the special relationship of the new Therme to the primordial forces of nature and the geology of the mountainscape, reacting to the impressive topography of the valley and the position of the warm spring which rises out of the primeval mountain just behind the new spa.
The lengthy projection process culminating in the finished artefact of the spa was initially a process of playful discovery, of a patient and enjoyable quest far beyond the architectonic ideals. The fascination for the mystic qualities of a world of stone within the mountain, for darkness and light, for light reflections on the water or in the steam saturated air, pleasure in the unique acoustics of bubbling water in a world of stone, a feeling for warm stones and naked skin, the ritual of bathing - these notions guided us. The intention to work with these elements, to implement them consciously and to lend them a special form was there from the outset. Only much later, when the preliminary plans were almost finished, did we visit the old baths in Budapest, Istanbul and Bursa and then understood better where these archaic images had come from; archaic images apparently slumbering in a virtually archetypal awareness.
Our spa is no funfair with the latest technical gadgets, water games, jets, sprays and slides, but focuses on the quiet, primary experience of bathing, cleansing, relaxing in the water, the feeling of water all round the body, at various temperatures and in various settings, physical contact with primordial stone.
http://www.creativeclass.com/creative_class/tag/therme-vals/
Nestled in the Swiss Alps, 100 miles South of Zurich with a population of less than 1,000, Vals is known for its spring water which is sold throughout Switzerland. In the 1980s, when a local hotel owner went bankrupt, the village stepped in and purchased the hotels, hoping to transform one of them into a hydrotherapy center. The village then commissioned Peter Zumthor to design the baths which would not only be an amenity for the community but an attraction for visitors.
Since its opening in 1996, the village has seen a dramatic increase in the number of tourists making tourism Vals’ primary source of income accounting for 2/3 of the local economy. Architecture aficionados and travelers alike are drawn to this magnificent building to experience how the architecture has established a dialogue with the powerful landscape that surrounds it and the healing qualities of the thermal bath water.
The design creates a series of spaces that are organized within and between structural box columns of concrete, faced in indigenous Valser quartzite. The roof is a system of thin cantilevered concrete slabs that are supported by the box columns. The roof slabs do not touch, allowing the natural light to dramatically enter the baths through linear glass skylights.
As you enter the baths, you pass through an acrylic curtain, into a world meant to delight the senses. It seems paradoxical that one of the most masterful works of contemporary architecture should have such an understated and unusual entrance.
The baths, ranging from a tepidarium that is 40 degrees Celsius to a much cooler outdoor pool, are organized in a complex labyrinth of chambers inside and between the structural column-rooms. The concrete inside the tepidarium is integrally colored a deep red.
The Therme Vals is more than just great architecture that can be appreciated in relation to the unbuilt Danteum project by the Italian modernist Giuseppi Terragni. It also demonstrates how a small village can be creative and entrepreneurial. The Therme Vals offers a seductive shift from the paradigm of the Bilbao effect where architecture is a vehicle for economic health through spectacle and display to architecture as a space of desire – for the engagement of mind, body and soul, and community – and an equally powerful driver of local economy.
For more information on the Therme Vals, please visit:
http://www.therme-vals.ch/bad/index_en.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therme_Vals
Photographs taken from Flickr account members: sim and Dee Adams
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