Formafatal uses glass and light to denote treatment zones in Prague spa

Curved cement-screed walls with embedded rows of vertical glass bars characterise this spa in Prague designed by local studio Formafatal.

The Cellularium spa is located in the Institute of Natural Medicine, where it occupies one curved corner of a floor in the Main Point Pankrac building, which has a glazed exterior broken up by vertical aluminum sheets.

The spa’s main treatment area features three rooms that are delineated by rows of perpendicular glass bars, in reference to the vertical design of the building’s facade. These transparent rods are lit according to the function of the space inside.

“There is no need to describe the purpose of the room to customers,” explained Formafatal. “The colour itself defines the content: sauna as fire (red), cryosauna as ice (blue) and air flow as wind (gray)”.

The 155-square-metre interior comprises an entrance foyer and a waiting room, doctor’s office, locker rooms and treatment areas. The spaces were strategically placed around the building’s inclined structural columns.

“You can hardly find a flat wall in the floor plan,” said the architects, who acknowledged the confines of the existing space by using curved subdividing walls.

A convex divider decorated with metal fins separates the doctor’s office from the waiting area and nods to the exterior of the building in which the spa is located.

“The outer shell of the surgery is lined with vertical steel plates, which gradually fold down to a flat smooth cladding with integrated doors,” the team explained.

An undulating ceiling punctuated by square, solid oak dowel rods of varying lengths unites the different areas in the spa.

Formafatal used a toned-down colour and material palette in the scheme to focus the attention on the curved shapes of the interior.

“Dark tones and smooth screed on surfaces together with daylight significantly underline the playfully modelled space,” the studio said.

“We left the nurse’s and the doctor’s office in soft light shades that do not distract the visitor,” it continued.

Locker rooms feature mirrors with bespoke backlighting housed within perforated metal sheet backing.

“We lit up the small circular locker rooms into a play of light and shadow, again with a grid of vertical strips,” Formafatal said.

“We repeated all these principles and materials in other modified forms throughout the interior to achieve a harmonious whole,” it concluded.

Formafatal is a Prague-based architecture studio founded in 2015 that works across the residential, leisure, hospitality and commercial sectors.

Other projects by Formafatal include a villa in the Costa Rican jungle made up of monolithic concrete volumes.

The photography is by BoysPlayNice.

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