A transparent cube, a dialogue between city and countryside, a fluid connection between water and mountains, houses Merano’s thermal baths. The project’s genius loci captures the full beauty of the environment: the “artificial landscape” of the spa resembles the surrounding natural mountain landscape.
Natural, untreated materials—iroko wood, granite—induce a tactile and sensory experience undisturbed by technology, which is present but invisible. With a total of twenty-five swimming pools and eight saunas, the Merano spa uses modern environmental techniques aimed at saving energy and water. A low-temperature heating system is more efficient than conventional systems, and where drinking water is not essential (toilet, waste), well water is used, saving about eight million liters of drinking water per year.
A cogeneration plant produces electricity, using the residual heat produced for heating the thermal bath. An absorption cooling system uses the excess thermal energy from the cogeneration plant for cooling the hotel and spas. A heat-recovery plant is used for the production of hot water.
