Description:

This design is for a Spa facility on Queenstown's, Coronet Peak. It is nestled into the side of the mountain right beside the top chairlift on the ski field with the peak directly above. The aim for this design was to create a sanctuary away from the hustle and bustle of everyday life - addressing the fact that our modern world has become so busy and over stimulating and is causing more people to have mental health issues. This design proposal is all about creating a moment of pause and respite from everyday life - stripping it back to the pure basics, creating an experience that improves the wellness of the users.

This spa will offer a variety of activities that Queenstown currently lacks, on a much larger scale than the existing boutique spas. It would bring more people to the area and be able to experience Coronet Peak and its views in a different light. The programme includes, spas, a plunge pool, showers, epsom salt bath, private spa and treatment rooms, sauna, horizontal aromatherapy showers, steam bath and a cafe. It will also be beneficial to the 10,000 yearly ski field users and those walking the Mahu Whenua traverse which ends or starts right at the peak.

The design is centered around the notion of journeying. Coronet peak’s original use by both Maori and early settlers was navigated across but never settled. The pathways and circulation throughout the design are a nod to the historic attributes and the people who have also used this land to journey across, moving through a variety of spa experiences such as hot and cold, mist and steam, vista and refuge.

Biophilia was another important aspect of the design, concentrating on the more spatial properties of prospect and refuge, as well as risk and peril through the progression of the elements. The variation of these atmospheres shapes the users' experiences, from feeling really vulnerable and exposed to feeling safe and held in more intimate spaces like horizontal aromatherapy showers. This idea of contrast was also done through lighting, change of framed landscape, elevation and materiality.

The spas are accessed via the chairlift, where you enter through a slit in the mountain. It has been negotiated in terms of privacy in relation to the ski field's winter function. It faces the chairlift and is the only part of the structure visible from the ski slope. By burying the structure behind a rock wall, it creates a barrier between the existing uses of the mountain and the spas, which have very different atmospheres. Moving through into more concentrated spaces you burrow down into the intimate changing rooms and lockers area with low ceilings creating a safe refuge and pockets of privacy.

These spas are a multi sensory experience with varying atmospheres and qualities about them for you to explore, unwind and relax in designed to maximize therapeutic benefit away from day to day living.