Edmonton Nordic Spa

Location: Edmonton, AB
Year: 2020
Status: Proposal

This urban Nordic spa project - sited in a natural setting in the heart of the city - offers users a retreat during the long, dark winter months. Befitting its urban location, the concept expands the traditional Nordic spa focus on personal wellness to include social wellness, by creating a variety of social zones distinct from the quiet areas.

The architecture is a constructed landscape that is varied and intuitive. The pliable geometry of the design allows the complex to sensitively integrate into the established trees, while also creating a unique and intriguing experience for visitors. An undulating wall with a consistent and human-scale height follows visitors into and through the building. An abstraction of the winding riverbanks adjacent to the site, and erosion of the river at its headwaters, this curving wall element evokes the wider region and frames the entire experience. This linear building element incorporates a co-generation plant and high-efficiency boilers, and allows mechanical services to be distributed around the site within a well insulated and energy-efficient corridor. The linear element also provides a semi-enclosed micro-climate, blocking nearby noise and framing the sky. The circulation and subtle terrain of the pathways reinforce the hot/warm/cold circuit of the hydrotherapy cycle, so that paths gently slope up to elevated colder pools and cascading waterfalls, referencing glacial run-off. Saunas, steam rooms, and relaxation lounges are carved into the walls.