Matteo Thun & Partners' JW Marriott Venice opens, with GOCO-designed spa to follow in May
JW Marriott Hotels & Resorts has soft-opened the JW Marriott Venice Resort & Spa on the private island Isola delle Rose, with the grand opening celebration planned for 24 June 2015.
The hotel is situated 15 minutes by speedboat from Piazza San Marco.
Architecture practice Matteo Thun & Partners has been in charge of converting historic buildings into a sustainability-focused 266-key luxury hotel, holiday villas, convention centre and a spa – using locally-sourced materials such as Venetian tiles, textiles, bricks and glass.
The design masterplan for the project has reorganised the island into three main parts, each defined by its garden areas. A former hospital, built in 1936, has become the hotel, and its outbuildings – including an old church – have been converted into the spa and a convention centre.
Matteo Thun & Partners describe the project, that uses local suppliers for sustainability and waste-management efficiency, as a "three-zero" village, both in its construction and subsequent management: zero kilometres, zero CO2 and zero waste.
The property’s fruit arbours, olive groves and cultivated plots – including a turnip garden used for soil regeneration – supply the resort’s four restaurants, five bars, cooking school and wine academy.
Additional facilities include weekly authentic Murano glass and Venetian mask-making workshops led by local artisans, as well as watersports such as canoeing and sailing. The hotel’s rooftop pool offers views of Piazza San Marco and La Serenissima.
The 1,750m (18,837sq ft) spa – designed and operated by GOCO Hospitality – will be the largest in Venice when it opens in early May.
It will offer an indoor and outdoor stainless steel vitality pool, a health club, eight treatment rooms, sauna, steamroom, experience showers, two bio saunas, a hammam with scrub room and a spa suite. The wet zone facilities will be supplied by Barr + Wray, working alongside main contractor Chandler KBS.
Other 2015 global openings planned by the brand include JW Marriott Cabo San Lucas Resort, Mexico; JW Marriott Austin, Texas; and JW Marriott Vancouver Place Stadium, British Columbia, Canada.