Adding new spaces and functions to a mountain hotel without affecting the harmony with the landscape, on the contrary, creating a better integration with the surroundings: this is the guiding theme of the project for the Olympic Spa Hotel, in Vigo di Fassa, with a tradition of hospitality dating back to 1963. The plan to expand the current premises with an annex and a new sauna was an opportunity to define a ‘mimetic’ and sustainable intervention model.
The key idea was to shift the centre of gravity of the hotel from the provincial road to the slope behind it, which slowly declines, turning into a forest, until it reaches the Avisio stream. The sauna, on the other hand, is a separate wooden building, located on the edge of the forest, in an elevated position facing the treetops and accessible via an atmospheric aerial pathway. The emphasis is on direct contact with nature, which is also supported by the used materials, by the façade design that plays with the mountain skyline, by the terraces and the special interior patios embedded in the larger rooms.
The project envisaged the construction of a new building along the slope, partially buried and connected to the hotel by an underground passage, which accommodates ten rooms and a gym. Characterised by its distinctive profile, it is inspired by that of a mountain. At one end, a higher spike identifies the double level of the largest suite, then the roof descends, with lower height spikes indicating the single-level rooms and, at the other end, the fitness studio. This silhouette, highly recognisable in its graphic simplicity, is intended to become the hotel’s architectural signature.
The sauna is an elevated construction with eye-level views of the tree canopies. Made entirely of wood, externally clad in larch and internally in spruce treated with black wax, it blends into the forest and offers an impressive panorama of it from both the interior windows and the side terrace. It can be reached directly from the hotel via an aerial walkway, which leaves the meadow below free. Access to the sauna is only outside, even in winter: a choice that intends to promote strong and direct contact with nature.
Photo © Alex Filz
