SPA Potaissa

Turda, Romania

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SPA Potaissa

Turda, Romania

Firm

Filofi si Trandafir Arhitectura

Type

Hospitality + Sport › Wellness/Spa

STATUS

Built

YEAR

2015

SIZE

25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft

BUDGET

$1M - 5M

Photos

Irina (1)

Location: City: Turda, County: Cluj, Country: Romania
Construction year: 2011-2015
Gross external area: 2100 sqm
Building Costs: 1800000 EUR

Authors:
Architecture: Filofi şi Trandafir arhitectură
Architects in charge: arch. Irina Filofi, arch. Cătălin Trandafir, arch. Claudiu Piper

Collaborators: arch. Cezar Mateescu, eng. Cristi Scuturici, eng. Raul Bârstan, eng. Cristina Pogăcean,
Expert Eng. Pop Gh Ioan, a-viz.ro architecture rendering
Consultants: Florin Pușcasu, Adrian Toth, Gabriel Hațeganu
Contractor: ACSA (Engineers in charge: eng. Galoș, eng. Gheorghe Lazăr, eng. Bogdan Lateș)
Photography: Cătălin Budișan, Cătălin Trandafir

The project unfolds inside the Potaissa Hotel, an interwar building, modern, well placed and beautifully drawn, comparable to other well known works of that time.

The original building (underground floor, ground floor, mezzanine and two stories) housed two functions, accommodation and communal bathroom, designed to work both independently and together. Except for the reception area for accommodation (benefiting from separate access), the ground floor and mezzanine contained the communal bathroom and the first and second floors were designed as accommodation spaces. The basement housed the technical spaces and the complementary functions of the two areas. The accommodation is functional today, but the communal bathroom was abandoned and remained inoperative since the 90s.

This project aimed to rehabilitate and refunctionalize the former communal bathrooms and transform it into a spa and leisure complex. For this purpose, the the ground floor, which contained the existing basin was fitted with relaxation areas, saunas and whirlpools, and took over the role of a leisure space. Constraints of space required redesigning and rethinking flows and all functional relations. The treatment area was developed on the mezzanine level and consists of a salt water pool, the dry procedure rooms, the wet procedure rooms and rooms for physical activity. The treatment spaces revolve around a skylight above the atrium and the main basin, benefiting from a vertically visual relationship with the spaces on the lower level. The two areas remain open both to hotel guests and the general public.

Due to the fact that the existing building is one of architectural value, created and resulted in and from the avandgardiste interwar spirit, we sought out solutions that involve minimal intervention, that retain and employ the essence of space and to create, into some extent, the premise of proposals that go beyond pastiche or collage.
We started by analyzing the existing building , by trying to identify and define the principles which have determined its existence, form and reason. Furthermore, we tried to apply the same stylistic and functional principles that led to the composition of the building in its original form, but through forms reinterpreted, then adapted to the new requirements. As materials used in the structural interventions, we relied on materials from the same family with the existing ones and for the finishings, we proposed simple and clean solutions.

The many technical and technological challenges resulted both from the fact that we worked on a historic building and the requirements of the interior spaces (spaces with high humidity, the salt water pool, and so on), led us to seek atypical and customized solutions. For example, the first problem was to facilitate the space for the equipment necessary for the swimming pools, the dehumidification and ventilation systems, all generously sized.

Correlating the limitations of the existing interior space and headroom with the desire to create a unified interior and visually clean, free from the presence of numerous but necessary piping and grilles, we understand that we must find and customize special systems. In this way, we managed to implement a solution by which the dehumidification process is performed in a quasi- vertical system, the treated air intake is distributed through underground and covered channels while the air is discharged through linear slots, minimal sized, embedded in the floor. At the other end, the foul air absorption occurs through channels located behind perforated ceilings that also drive natural light into the core of the building. With the majority of places with high humidity, we had to lean towards performance materials for partitions, cladding and finishes resistant to such conditions. Another objective from which we started was to have continuity, inner surfaces that unite to eliminate the effect of fragmentation, to act as a bridge between old and new, to solve in a clean manner the inevitable structural joints and also to exceed the requirements relating to hygiene premises.

Thus we avoided the usual ceramic tile solutions in favor of polyurethane resin, which we used both on floors and also as wall and ceiling finishes. This facilitated our uniform approach that we were seeking and allowed us greater freedom in expressing the initial concept.