Wellness Club: integration of Nature With Architecture

Abstract

Thevision of the thesis project is to create architectural spaces that incorporate nature· mood, experience, philosophy of spaces manifested through natural settings and natural elements that havea stress-relievingeffect. The thesis is an exploration of varying behaviors and phenomena of dynamic mediums light, sound, wind and water that are inherent in nature. These varyingproperties and behaviors are to be 'exhibited' through 'hammam' and wellness club integrated into outdoor natural settings. The integration does not take place on landscape level only but becomes the dictatingfeature of the main program i.e. hammam. The main program runs around one element of nature i.e. water, complement by auxiliary programs that incorporate natural light, openness of the sky, views to thelake, water channeling system, vegetation Such a combination aims toyield a meditative and stress-relieving feel into the architectural spaces. The typology of the hammam combined with wellness centre is solely linked with mental & physical health of citizens. It will act as a break from the distortions and thedaily grindof the urban metropolis. Sounds and noises, reflections and dispersions, obstruction and admittance, piercing intothe solids and filteringout of the voids, rhythm and flow, focusing and dispersing, regular patterns and irregular distortions, orchestration and echo, channelingand funneling are the features that will be exhibited in the baths. These behaviors are aimed at creatingexperiential and emotive qualities within spaces and consequently concern with thesubject of phenomenology'. Experiential qualities come as a result of balanced combination between soft materials-light, sound, water and hard materials - concrete, glass and stone. Furthermore the thesis aims to explore the flexibility within a crowded and bustlingsite by plugging a meditative program into it that generally requires seclusion, calm andsilence.