Alberto Apostoli is creating a spa inspired by icebergs and the Northern Lights
– Alberto Apostoli
Alberto Apostoli is designing a new four-level spa for the Formentin Hotel that is inspired by the Aurora Borealis and the icebergs of the Northern seas.
A historic thermal hotel built in 1911, the Formentin Hotel is located in the centre of Abano Terme, an ancient thermal area located between Verona and Venice.
The 840sq m (9,042sq ft) spa will include a swimming pool on the ground floor, a thermal area with Turkish bath, a sauna, an ice waterfall, an outdoor whirlpool, changing rooms and a relaxation room.
Treatment rooms will include a couple's cabin, a Spastream cabin, three individual treatment rooms, a double treatment cabin with a Vitalis bathtub and a third-floor terrace.
Apostoli is recreating the Northern Lights with the use of a fabric that integrates special optical fibres, while "icebergs", based on a design by Studio Apostoli, are to be made of sintered expanded polystyrene covered with resin.
"The hot-cold and water-fire combinations have always been the basis of wellbeing," he told CLAD sister title Spa Business. "For the Formentin Hotel spa, I wanted to mark this contrast, creating a Nordic environment in opposition to the sauna and the Turkish bath. So I thought about the icebergs and the Aurora Borealis, symbolically recreated through an illuminated fabric. The result is an environment that provides emotional cold – a cold that warms the spirit of the spa guests."
The spa is scheduled to open in April 2020.
Northern Lights Alberto Apostoli Italy Hotel Formentin thermal spa