Architectural Practice Purcell have won in the International Hotel & Property Awards 2014 with their project, Coworth Park Spa, shortlisted for the Spa Hotel Award.
Having created a luxury 21st Century country house at Coworth Park, the Dorchester Collection required a unique eco luxury spa. The range of facilities determined a new stand-alone building to provide an exceptional, modern spa experience in an undeniably English setting with an eccentric spirit. The spa emerges as a sculptural form from the natural landscape, blurring the edges between built and natural form. Facilities are arranged on two levels: a lower level with pool and gym, and an upper entry level containing the changing rooms, treatment rooms, lounges and café.
The building is the world’s first spa to be built out of carbon negative lime hemp walling with natural lime render and a timber glulam monocoque structure. The natural lime render and plaster provide a highly insulated, breathable and airtight construction with green credentials. The hotel and spa buildings are supplied by an energy centre that combines a biomass boiler, heat exchangers and other energy-saving measures. These measures reduce the carbon footprint and energy used and offset in excess of 35% of the development’s annual carbon dioxide emissions through the use of onsite renewable energy sources.
The design philosophy behind the spa was to construct a building that could be immersed in the existing landscape but was iconic enough to provide guests with a sense of its uniqueness and eco luxury. Spas are traditionally high water users and Coworth Park Spa has sought to reduce water uses across a wide range of measures. The ultra-violet pool has reduced backwash and overall water consumption and energy requirement without the excessive need of chemicals.
The result is an innovative and ingenious building that serves as a model for the hotel and spa industry that naturally embraces the site’s natural landscape combined with exemplar environmental credentials.