For the Olympic Spa Hotel in Val di Fassa, northern Italy, NOA designed a new extension according to a sustainable model, aiming to enhance and integrate the facilities with the surrounding landscape. From the new rooms nestled in the Alpine meadow, with terraces and internal patios, to the surprising sauna overlooking the forest, to be reached by an aerial path, this project camouflages the new, plays with the profile of the mountains and gives guests the emotion of a sincere bond with nature.
“As with other similar projects, we started with a general concept,” explains architect Stefan Rier, founder of NOA with Lukas Rungger. “We know from experience how important it is to always define an overall vision. Even if (as in the case of the Olympic Hotel) we initially only focus on one part of the project, what we build is not a stand-alone element, but becomes the first step of an overall, wider-ranging plan, that will develop over time.”
The new building, which accommodates ten rooms and a gym, is characterized by its distinctive profile, inspired by that of a mountain. Even the color palette of the materials used recalls the surrounding landscape: the sloping pitches and external walls are plastered in a grey color reminiscent of the Dolomite rocks.
The key idea in NOA’s design was to shift the center of gravity of the hotel from the provincial road, which most of the rooms hitherto overlooked, to the slope behind it, which slowly declines, turning into a forest, until it reaches the Avisio stream. Thus, the project envisaged the construction of the new ten rooms along the slope, partially buried and connected to the hotel by an underground passage. 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, the façade design that plays with the mountain skyline, the terraces and the special interior patios embedded in the larger rooms.
IN TOUCH WITH NATURE
Each room has floor-to-ceiling windows and a large terrace overlooking the landscape. The new rooms are named in the Ladin language, a culture to which the owners’ family is very attached. Thus, the four ‘Te Bosch’ rooms pay homage to the forest, an inspirational element that shapes the interior. Each of them has an internal patio with transparent walls: a private space accessible in every season, bringing light and nature into the room. The vegetation of the patio, the presence of a birch tree and the view of the sky become part of a new experience for hotel guests who can, for example, imagine themselves outdoors while taking a shower. Or, in winter, they can see snow falling from both sides of the room, with the feeling of being in the middle of an alpine forest. Or, again, they can sleep outside on summer nights, on suspended beds equipped with double sleeping bags, and admire the starry sky, given the lack of light pollution.
At one end of the building, at the highest ‘peak’ of the façade, is the two-level suite. The sleeping area is on the ground floor, in an area lowered by three steps to create more intimacy and give movement to the volume of the room. The first floor, on the other hand, is entirely dedicated to relaxation: the sauna, emotional shower and wellness area make use of the volume of the characteristic double-pitched attic, looking out over the forest.
A TREETOP SAUNA
The new 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 both from the interior windows and a side terrace. It can be reached directly from the hotel via an aerial walkway, which leaves the meadow below free (where, by the way, the ‘Marcialonga’, the famous cross-country skiing event, passes by every year). Therefore, access to the sauna is only outside, even in winter: a choice that intends to promote, even in this case, strong and direct contact with nature.
Photography by Alex Filz.
For more from NOA, be sure to check out co-founder Lukas Rungger’s Paris Pied-à-Terre here.
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