
In designing the Baths building we have sought a balanced response to the natural setting on one hand and to the urbanized context on the other. The structure is built up to (and, in places, into) the side of the mountain, integrating its volume with that of its natural setting. To its neighbors, a church and a hotel, the building design offers a neutral façade, moderately acknowledging the traditional space-making of these rectilinear blocks disposed orthogonally to one another. A series of curving walls or "ribbons" define the building's exterior form. These "ribbons" spring from the mountainside and terminate equally, while between them are green roof surfaces in a series of terraces forming an extension of the mountain landscape.
The program is complex, and the municipal zoning limits require that much of the floor area be located underground, making the provision of natural light and views of the natural surroundings to the maximum area of the plan a design priority. There are four distinct zones within the Baths complex. On the main level are the pools and saunas, with one exterior and three interior hot pools, turkish baths, cold baths, ice baths, saunas, showers, foot baths, relaxing areas, and juice bars.





