After designing the swimming pool for the Hotel Hubertus in Valdaora in 2016, studio noa* returns to South Tyrol for a new project, this time dedicated to wellness. It was precisely the iconic cantilevered pool to inpire the new building, designed as a suspended, upside-down village. A surrealist architecture focusing on the idea of reflection and the reversal of viewpoints, evoking the image of a landscape reflected in water. 

“The essence of this project is the overturning of horizons, resulting in an astonishing effect for the observer”, explains Lukas Rungger,  the project's lead architect. Spread over two levels, the architecture is detached from the main building, supported by two pillars clad in larch logs: the cantilevered platform, stretching 20 meters off the building and suspended 15m above ground level, can be reached through a walkway, a glazed volume stimulating an all-new gaze on the landscape. 

The idea of a cluster of microstructures with a double-pitch roof – in a reference to mountain dwellings – characterizes both levels, the two clusters mirroring each other around the platform line. The upper floor, where the spaces are exposed, two whirlpool baths are housed, together with two panoramic showers and a changing room ; the lower, more protected floor hosts a soft sauna, a Finnish sauna, a frozen mist shower and a swimming pool. 

The reversed roofs represent a functional choice as well as an aesthetic value:  the water purification system and the sauna steps, in fact, can find their proper place in this peculiar shapes. In the cabins, the floors are in beige ceramic, while in the relax room the floor is white oiled oak. By combining suspended elements, seeking a surprising effect, with colors and materiality tightly connected to moutains, noa* is exploring the perspective of a challenge to gravity to shape an inedited scenario of relationship with architecture and landscape.